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Dinners 
and Luncheons 



NOVEL SUGGESTIONS FOR SOCIAL 
OCCASIONS. 



Compiled by 

PAUL PIERCE 

Editor and Publisher of What To Eat, the National Food Magazine. 
Superintendent of Food Exhibits at the St. Louis World's Fair. 
Honorary Commissioner of Foods at the Jamestown Exposition. 



CHICAGO 
BREWER, BARSE & CO. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 
JUL 20 190? 
Copyright Entry 

'4* "t c 7 

uafe c^ xxcNo, 

COPY B. 






< 



Copyrighted 1907 

by 
PAUL PIERCE 



Respectfully dedicated to the overworked, 
perturbed American hostess in the sincere 
hope that the suggestions herein may lighten 
her perplexities and transform her work of 
entertaining from a task of dread to one of 
delight. 



This little book is the first of a series containing 
suggestions for entertaining, which will give the host- 
ess novel and practical ideas on the manner of prepar- 
ing and conducting various social affairs. There is also 
another volume on Parties and Entertainments, one on 
Suppers, and another on Breakfasts and Teas and a 
fifth on Weddings and Wedding Celebrations. These 
volumes, it should be remembered, have been compiled 
by the publisher of What To Eat, The National Food 
Magazine, America's leading publication upon enter- 
tainments, dinners, menus, recipes and the other sub- 
jects of importance to the hostess. 

With the exercise of a little ingenuity and origi- 
nality, the directions may be varied — added to or al- 
tered — to suit all needs. This first book is designed 
especially to describe those dinners and luncheons 
which, while complete in themselves, also afford the 
best suggestions for others. 

The Publishers. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter I. Dinner Giving for the Convenience of 
Busy Housewives — Upon the Serving of Wines. 

Chapter II. How to Send the Invitation — How to 
Serve in Proper Form Dinners and Luncheons 
With Menus and Recipes— The Invitation — Din- 
ner Menus — Simple Menu — More Elaborate 
Menu — A Full Course Dinner — The Ease of a 
Course Dinner — A Fine Menu — A Mid-Summer 
Dinner — Luncheon Menus — Simple Luncheon — 
More Elaborate Luncheon — A Berry Luncheon — 
Mid-Summer Luncheon — A Rural Luncheon — 
Buffet Luncheon for Sixty. 

Chapter III. Dinners and Entertainments for Patri- 
otic, Holiday and Special Occasions — Valentine 
Luncheon — A Lincoln Dinner — For St. Patrick's 
Day — Attractive Easter Luncheon — Cap and 
Bells Luncheon for April First — Decoration Day 
Luncheon — For a Hallowe'en Dinner — A Fourth 
of July Dinner — A Luncheon for Thanksgiving — 
Thanksgiving Dinner — A Christmas Dinner — An 
unusually Original Dinner — A Spring Dinner — 
College Dinners. 

Chapter IV. "Ice Breakers," Suggestions for Din- 
ner, Menu and Place Cards, Table Stories, 
Toasts, Table Decorations. 

Chapter V. Helps Over Hard Places — Hints to the 
Hostess — Don'ts for the Table — The Emergency 
Mistress — Passing the Loving Cup, 



Dinners and Luncheons 7 

CHAPTER I. 

DINNER-GIVING FOR THE CONVEN- 
IENCE OF BUSY HOUSEWIVES. 

Three things are required to give an enjoyable 
dinner party; good taste, good judgment and an in- 
tuitive sense of harmony. Good taste suggests the 
proper thing in table dressing, in menu cards, in viands 
and beverages. Good judgment dictates the fortunate 
time, the appropriate guests, the seasonable dishes and 
topics ; and last, a sense of harmony is the quality that 
throws a glamour over all, combining pleasant parts 
in one symetrical whole, making a picture "distinct 
like the billows, but one like the sea." This sense of 
harmony never yokes uncongenial persons at table, ex- 
cept through unavoidable necessity. It is on the alert 
to suggest congenial topics and deftly turn the con- 
versation away from disputed or disagreeable ones. It 
will often succeed in putting a garrulous and self- 
assertive man who likes to talk all the time, beside a 
mild and inoffensive woman who is content if she has 
naught to do but listen and — eat. It will swell the 
heart of a silent man with gratitude by reversing this 
action and placing beside him a woman who chatters 
like a magpie. It will often turn the stupid guest, 
who for various reasons will, in spite of all, occasion- 
ally appear at the best of tables, over to an intimate 
friend to whom a sacrifice for the sake of the host or 
hostess is a pleasure thus saving the formal guest and 
maintaining the reputation of the household for excel- 



8 



Dinners and Luncheons 



lent management. In fact this sense of harmony is 
the essence that permeates and vitalizes the entire pro- 
ceedings and assures success to the hostess, because it 
guarantees pleasure to the guests. 

Nervousness, annoyance, anxiety on the part of the 
host or hostess during the serving of dinner are the 
deadly foes of enjoyment. If you feel these, therefore 
avoid showing them as you would avoid doing any 
other act sure to bring discomfort to those you are 
entertaining. Nothing conduces more to the enjoy- 
ment of guests than the fact that the host is sharing 
the enjoyment. What if some servant blunders or 
some dish is spoiled ! It is aggravating, of course, but 
in most cases it will afford amusement if the host re- 
gards the blunder good naturedly. Of course no 
lady or gentleman will lose temper under such cir- 
cumstances. Such an exhibition would be unspeak- 
ably vulgar ; but there ought not to be even a display 
of irritation or a pursuing of the subject beyond a 
passing and good natured remark. 

There is, however, a tendency on the part of too 
many hosts to fix their thoughts intently on the dinner 
and the way it is served. They try to show an inter- 
est in the conversation, while throwing furtive glances 
at the servants and taking occasion to communicate 
orders or complaints in asides. It is far better to 
sav > "John, give Mr. Black some wine," than to com- 
municate the order by nods and winks as if you were 
secretly ashamed to have Black know that you were 
observing his consumption of fluids, or were trying to 
get him intoxicated surreptiously. Really, of the 



Dinners and Luncheons g 

two evils, it is better to be too inattentive — to let a 
course wait even — than to be on the alert, watching 
the dilatory eater and summoning the servant the mo- 
ment he lays down his knife. 

A young housekeeper in medium circumstances 
should never attempt too much, too large a number of 
guests or too many courses. It is always best to prac- 
tice the dishes before, in fact, if exquisite cooking -and 
cooking even on the smallest scale, is the daily habit, 
no company, however large, can upset the hostess or her 
domestics. 

And a woman who cultivates the art of little dinners 
soon becomes famous; men admire her and envy her 
husband, women dote on her, for an invitation means 
brightness and merriment as well as a congenial com- 
panion. The young married woman who is expert 
in blending sauces, is just as clever in mixing the hu- 
man elements of attraction and amalgamation. 

Refreshments, daintily served, stimulate conversa- 
tion ; ice cream breaks the ice, so to speak, and warms 
the company. Serving food is a visible demonstration 
of hospitality which all the philosophy in the world 
cannot cover. 

Gorgeous ornamentation of dinner table is conceded 
to be bad form. The embellishment — the ornate, if 
you will — has been overdone, and now there is a re- 
action which tends to simplicity extreme expressed by 
a handsome centerpiece and a moderate exposition of 
not common flowers. 

A different kind and color of china with every 
course is affected by those whose cabinet is crowded 



IO Dinners and Luncheons 

and who are proud of it, but this pride has its lim- 
itations among people of refinement and culture. This 
class does not give dinners simply to exhibit earthly 
treasure and create envy, and, perhaps, covetousness, 
too. 

The larger the table napkin the better. A yard 
square is none too big, and pleasantly recalls the 
Parisians, whose liberality in damask is proverbial 
but not a characteristic in anything else. The ma- 
terial should be the best obtainable, and the design the 
most beautiful. Any lace edging or embroidery, plain 
or colored, is just as bad taste as quinine. 

Knives, forks and spoons now-a-days, for almost 
everything, are somewhat confusing to those who do 
not dine out with sufficient frequency to keep up 
with the continually advancing procession. Some of 
these knives, forks and spoons are quite unnecessary, 
not to say silly, but the business of the silversmith 
must be considered. 

Place cards at dinners should be retained because 
the host or hostess has had them prepared in expecta- 
tion of their being retained and preserved as souvenirs. 
Ignoring them would be disrespect, and such disre- 
spect, under the social circumstances, would be un- 
pardonable. 

In planning a regular dinner the fact should always 
be remembered, that a heavy soup will so far cloy the 
appetite as to render one indifferent to the rest of the 
dinner, while a clear soup refreshes, and prepares one 
for the enjoyment of the succeeding solids. The fish 
and entrees should not be substantial enough to satisfy 



Dinners and Luncheons II 

hunger entirely; the relishes will then stimulate the 
appetite for the heavier dishes. The service of Roman 
Punch before the roast refreshes the palate, and pre- 
pares it for the more perfect enjo5^ment of the succeed- 
ing dishes; it is as necessary to the service of a good 
dinner as cheese is with plain salad. When olives 
are on the table, they go well with entrees of game; 
French chestnuts boiled, are excellent with poultry; 
and almonds, blanched and roasted with salt, are en- 
joyable with Madeira or Sherry before the sweet en- 
trements. Only a plain vegetable salad should accom- 
pany the roast or game; and a bit of any old cheese 
may be passed with the salad. Cheese straws or cheese 
crusts may be served with the salad. Although the 
cheese belongs with the salad, it enters into some deli- 
cate dishes, such as fondus and souffles, which may 
come to the table either after the oysters or soup, as 
relishes, or before the large sweets at dessert, previous 
to the service of the nuts and fruit. Then comes the 
dessert. If the dinner is a small one it is perfectly 
permissible for the hostess to make the coffee at the 
table, or it may be served in the drawing-room later. 
Even with the best chosen menu, the success of a din- 
ner depends on the skill of the cook. A good cook ap- 
preciates the value of sauces, and will give much care 
to their preparation, and, above all, will endeavor to 
preserve the natural flavors of the different dishes. All 
mingling of flavors is objectionable, except in sauces 
and salads. 

First Course Dishes. — Following are the names of 
the different courses which make up the detail of th*e 



12 Dinners and Luncheons 

regular dinner, both the English and French names 
being given. The complete detail of service is indi- 
cated, so that the most inexperienced can succeed. 
The Shellfish (Huitres), includes small raw 
oysters, and little neck or hard-shell clams on the half- 
shell at the same time, brown bread, cut very thin 
and buttered, and cut lemons, salt, cayenne, and 
some sharp table-sauces are placed upon the table in 
the original bottles. The Soup (Potage) is varied 
according to the character of the dinner, either a per- 
fectly clear soup, or consomme, and the other a rich 
thick one, such as a bisque or cream. A thick cut of 
bread, or a roll with crisp crust, is placed upon the 
napkin when the cover, or place, is laid ; this is not 
eaten with the soup usually, but is generally used after 
it with the shell-fish, hot entree, or at any time during 
dinner. The Fish (Poisson) may be of any large 
kind, boiled or baked, and served with a good sauce 
and plain boiled potatoes. If shell-fish is used at this 
point of the dinner, this dish should be large and hot, 
like broiled lobster. The Relishes (Hors d'oeuvre), 
which are placed upon the table as part of the decora- 
tion in the American dinner and the service a la Russe, 
include all kinds of table-sauces and catsups, salted 
almonds, pickles, olives, caviare, vinaigrettes, small 
cold entrees, such as bouchees and pate-de-foie-gras, 
pickled fish and small tongues, and individual escalops; 
all these are arranged on the table in little dishes. 
The Removes (Releves) consist of boiled, baked and 
braised meats, poultry and laree eame, large veal, 
ham, game and cold ornamental fish pies and large 



Dinners and Lucheons 13 

cold joints, such as boiled tongue and ham, generally 
served with a garnish of vegetables; the remove at a 
small dinner may consist of an elaborately dressed 
cold fish, if the regular fish service has been omitted. 
The Side-Dishes {Entrees) are the small hot meats 
garnished, such as cutlets, chops breaded or larded, 
sweet-breads garnished, f ric an deaux, fricassees, ragouts 
and escalopes j all hot; hot raised pies, pates, and ris- 
soles, combination salads of vegetables, salads with 
mayonnaise, such as chicken and lobster; in brief, any 
dish in size less than a joint or a roast. Roman 
Punch {Sorbet). There are many delicious ices 
served under the general name of Roman Punch, all 
having a combination of frozen fruit-sherbet and some 
fine liqueur, cordial, wine or spirit; served in the midst 
of the dinner, when the palate needs the sense of re- 
freshment they impart to it; they prepare it for re- 
newed enjoyment, and render it capable of appreciat- 
ing the intense flavor of the roast and the bouquet 
of the Burgundy or Champagne that follow these. 
The Roast {Roti). For family dinners the roast 
may be a joint of any meat preferred ; but for special 
occasions it should be of venison, larded hare, or some 
large game bird. If wild duck is served, there should 
be more than one, because only the breast is carved ; 
when canvas-backs are used, half a breast cut in one 
piece is helped to each guest. Smaller birds, either 
roasted or broiled, may be served in this course. All 
game should be underdone. A garnish of watercress 
or celery is used with birds, and always currant-jelly 
and special sauces should come to the table with ven- 



14 Dinners and Luncheons 

ison and hare. Salad (Salade). A green salad is 
the proper accompaniment of the roast; it may be 
watercress, lettuce, celery, chiccory, escarole, burnet, 
nasturtium (leaves, fruit and flowers), corn-salad, 
dandelion, tarragon, fennel, mint, young onions and 
any of the green sweet herbs; the five first named 
varieties are the most generally used. Sometimes to- 
matoes and cucumbers are served here in this, al- 
though they more properly belong, the cucumbers 
with the fish ; and the tomatoes with a mayonnaise 
among the cold entrees. The best dressing for a green 
salad is of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper; a salad with 
mayonnaise belongs among the cold entrees, as do the 
salads of cold cooked vegetables. A little old, rich 
cheese may be served with the green salad if desired. 

Dessert {Dessert). The dessert consists of the 
small cold sweets, such as eclairs, fancy cakes called 
petits-fours, confectionery, candied fruits, nuts, indi- 
vidual moulded jellies, ices and creams, glaces and 
cafe noir. When the dessert is divided in two parts, 
the dishes called glaces or ices are served first; these 
include every sweet which can be crystalized, frozen or 
iced; after them comes the dessert proper, composed 
of candied and dry fruits, nuts, bonbons and little 
fancy cakes, or petit-fours, with the cheese and coffee 
at the last. 

In preparing the various dishes for the dinner which 
can be made ready in advance, either uncooked or for 
cold service, the oysters or clams on the half-shell 
are to be kept on the ice until just before the dinner 
is announced ; they are then to be arranged on ap- 






Dinners and Luncheons 1 5 

propriate plates and set at each cover, the oyster-plate 
being placed on a large dinner plate, which is to be 
removed with it when the hot plate is placed for the 
soup or fish. A bit of lemon is to be put in the center 
of the oyster plate, six half-shells with oysters being 
served on each plate (except in California, where one 
can consume at least a dozen of the small delicious 
native bivalves). The small oyster-fork is laid either 
upon the plate or beside it on the table. After the 
shell-fish are eaten, the guest leaves the fork upon the 
plate so that it can be removed with it. Plates of 
brown bread, cut very thin and buttered, are placed 
upon the table with the shell-fish, and removed with 
them. If this bread is intended for use with the salad, 
it should be served in one compartment of a fancy 
basket or dish; the other divisions containing biscuit, 
crackers, old cheese, olives and small relishes. The 
basket containing the bread, etc., should be removed 
from the table with the salad. All plates are removed 
from and the various dishes passed at the guest's left 
hand ; the wine is poured at the right. Hot plates 
are served with all the dishes except foie-gras, caviare, 
salads, and the cold sweets. Great care should be 
exercised in preparing the dishes in the kitchen, and 
in bringing them to the table in a perfectly neat con- 
dition. The soup should not fill the tureen so far 
as to endanger spilling. The dishes for fish should 
be suited in size and shape to the contents. If the 
fish is boiled, it should be served unbroken, on a nap- 
kin laid in the appropriate platter, and garnished with 
a few sprigs of fresh parsley or slices of lemon, the 



1 6 Dinners and Luncheons 

sauce being served in a sauce-boat ; if sauce is served 
on the dish with the fish, only enough to cover the 
center of the dish should be used, and the fish laid on 
it; the rest is served in a sauce-boat. Entrees should 
be very neatly arranged with the proper garnishes, 
with only sauce enough to surround them, but not 
to reach the edge of the dish. Very little gravy, or 
none at all, should be on the dish with joints, as it is 
likely to be spilled in carrying; and the dish should 
be deep enough to contain all that may flow from 
the cut meat. 

Upon the Serving of Wines. 

If only two kinds of wine are served, sherry should 
accompany the soup and fish courses, and either 
claret or champagne brought on with the roast, and 
served throughout the remainder of the dinner. 

For the ten course dinner, cut glass goblets filled 
with water and crushed ice are placed at the right of 
each plate, about ten or twelve inches from the edge 
of the table. With these are grouped sauterne, sherry, 
rhinewine, claret, champagne, burgundy and liqueur 
glasses. The goblet of water remains in place through- 
out the dinner, being refilled at intervals. 

First Course. With the oysters, a glass of sauterne 
is the most appropriate accompaniment. This should 
be served in light green glasses, poured from native 
bottles, which have been cooled to 52 degrees Fahren- 
heit, but never iced. When the oyster plates are taken 
away, the sauterne glasses should also be removed. 

Second Course. With the soup, sherry, slightly 



Dinners and Luncheons 17 

cooled, should be served from a decanter, and poured 
into small white stem glasses, flaring slightly at the 
top. The sherry glasses should be removed after this 
course. 

Third Course. With the hors d'oeuvres, which 
may consist of cold side dishes, such as canapes, caviar, 
or anchovies, or of hot dishes, such as timbales, 
croustades or bouchees; and 

Fourth Course. Of fish, rhine wine is served from 
original bottles cooled to 52 degrees, and poured into 
long stemmed, light green glasses. 

Fifth Course. With the entree, claret is served 
from a decanter having a handle and poured into 
pure white glasses, never colored. The temperature 
of the claret should be from 65 to 75 degrees, at 
least thirteen degrees warmer than other wines. 

Sixth Course. With the roast, champagne is served 
from native bottles, as cold as possible, but not iced. 
The usual champagne glasses are saucer-shaped stem 
glasses, although some prefer a goblet shape, one size 
larger than a claret glass. 

Seventh Course. A sherbet. With this cooling 
refreshment, regular sherbet glasses (small glass cups 
with handles) are necessary. 

Eighth Course. Game with salad should be accom- 
panied with burgundy, slightly warm, at 65 or 70 
degrees, served from native bottles in wicker basket, 
poured into plain crystal glasses. After the eighth 
course the table is cleared for the first time of all 
plates, knives and forks, leaving only the water gob- 
lets, champagne and liqueur glasses before the guests. 



1 8 Dinners and Luncheons 

All crumbs are carefully swept away, and aessert 
spoons and forks laid for the 

Ninth Course. With this course champagne is 
the favorite beverage in every country. After the 
dessert plates, forks and spoons are removed, a finger- 
bowl partly filled w r ith water is placed before each 
guest, on plate having upon it a doily, a fruit knife 
and a nut pick (if fruits and nuts are to be served). 
After the fruits, cognac and liqueurs, such as anni- 
sette, benedictine, chartreuse or kummel, are served 
in miniature decanters, without handles, and poured 
into tiny thimble-shaped glasses, which should match 
the decanters, either plain or colored, cut or in strik- 
ing gold effects. Creme de menthe is served on 
shaved ice in a special bowl-shaped glass, from a high- 
ly decorated small decanter either of white or colored 
glass without a handle. 

Sherry, port and maderia are improved by being 
decantered several hours before using. In winter, 
the decanters should be dipped in warm water or 
otherwise warmed. 

All possible care should be taken in handling and 
decanting wines in order not to disturb the deposit 
which may exist in the bottle. Nearly all wines 
precipitate a sediment which sometimes resembles sand 
or white crystals. Its presence is rather a mark of 
superiority than inferiority in the quality of the wine. 
This deposit, however, if shaken, destroys the bril- 
liancy of the wine, and impairs its flavor and bouquet. 

Lighter wines, such as bordeaux and most Italian 
wines, should be decanted only an hour before dinner, 



Dinners and Luncheon IQ 

and brought into the dining room as late as possible 
before using. Sauterne, rhine wine, burgundy and 
champagne should be served from the original bot- 
tles, which should be stood up on end at least twenty- 
four hours before serving, to give the sediment time 
to settle at the bottom. The cork should be very care- 
fully drawn without shaking the bottle, the bottle 
slowly tilted, and the clear wine gently poured out. 
A small quantity of wine containing the sediment 
should be left in the bottle. Putting ice in the wine 
glass will spoil the flavor of any fine wine. 

A few drops of wine should first be poured into the 
host's glass, before serving the guests. If a toast to the 
health of any one present be proposed, the guest in 
whose honor the toast is given, must not drink, but 
should acknowledge the compliment with a smile and 
bow of thanks. The etiquette in regard to the Ger- 
man custom of clinking glasses is very well defined. 
One must hold the wine glass by the steam, being 
careful not to touch the bowl with the fingers. Con- 
vention also requires that one must look the person 
with whom one clinks glasses in the eye, and not at 
the wine, as one unfamiliar with this custom is very 
apt to do. 



20 Dinners and Luncheons 

CHAPTER II. 

HOW TO SEND THE INVITATION— HOW 
TO SERVE IN PROPER FORM DIN- 
NERS AND LUNCHEONS WITH 
MENUS AND RECIPES. 

The Invitation. 

Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Brown 

request the pleasure of 
Mr and Mrs. Jones' company 

at Dinner, 

on Wednesday, January 17, 

at seven o'clock. 

16 Overton Street, 
January 2. 

The invitation should be addressed to the lady invited as 
"Mrs. George W. Jones." 

Mr. and Mrs. George W. Jones 

accept with pleasure 

Mr. and Mrs. Brown's kind invitation 

to Dinner, 

on Wednesday, January 17, 

at seven o'clock. 

268 West Avenue, 

January 3. 

Address envelope to "Mrs. Reuben Brown." 

These are for formal dinners. If the dinner is 
an informal affair, a simple note addressed to the 
wife, asking her and her husband to dine is sufficient. 

When the guests have arrived the servant in 









Dinners and Luncheons 21 

charge should announce the dinner to the lady of the 
house. 

The host takes the lady who is to sit at his right, 
and leads the way. The hostess brings up the rear 
with the guest who is to occupy the same position at 
her right. 

Cards, with the name of the guest are usually 
placed at each place. 

The custom now is for the servant to pass the dishes 
to each guest, the meats, etc., being carved into con- 
venient size for the purpose. They are passed to the 
left side of the guests. All dishes, glasses, etc., not 
again required on the table, should be removed when 
the dessert is served. 

The forks, knives and glasses to be used, should 
be placed on the table at the first setting. For formal 
dinners usually three or four forks, including an oyster 
fork, and three knives, including a silver one for the 
fish course, if fish is served. 

A napkin is neatly folded and placed on the plate 
with a small piece of bread partly folded within it, 
if soup is served. 

Dinner Menus. 

Menu i 

Sardine Canapes, 

Cream of Asparagus, Croutons, Celery, 

Pimolas, Salted Pecans, Deviled Crabs in Shelly 

Fried Sweetbread, Macaroni, Tomato Sauce, 

Cheese Ramakins, French Rolls, Cabbage and Celery Salad, 

Chocolate Loaf, Charlotte Russe Filling 

Coffee. 



22 Dinners and Luncheons 

Menu ii. More Elaborate. 

Oyster Cocktails, Potage a la Reine, 

Celery, Pimolas, Salted Almonds, Pickles, 

Creamed Fish in Scallop Shell, Toast Sticks, 

Fillet of Beef, Mushroom Sauce, 

French Rolls, Potato Balls, Asparagus, 

Orange Frappe, Chicken Croquettes, Green Peas, 

Shrimp Salad, Wafers, Almond Meringues, Maple Par fait, 

Crackers, Cheese, Cafe Noir. 

Menu hi. A Full Course Dinner. 

Blue Points, Brownbread Sandwiches, 

Cream of Tomato, Wafers, Olives, Celery, Salted Almonds, 

Timbales of Halibut, Bechamel Sauce, 

Sweetbread and Mushroom Patties, Green Peas, 

Roast Turkey, Chestnut Stuffing, Potato Balls, 

Parker House Rolls, Tutti Frutti in Apple Cups, 

Asparagus, Melted Butter, Maraschino Punch, 

Quail on Toast, Rice Croquettes, Current Jelly, 

Tomato Jelly Cups filled with Celery and Nut Salad, 

Fruit, Nuts, Bon Bons, Almond Cake, 

Vanilla Ice Cream, Claret Sauce, Crackers, Cheese, 

Cafe Noir, Creme de Menthe. 

The sardine canapes, given as a first course in Menu 
I, is a dainty appetizer made of sardines, boned, rubbed 
to a paste with a little creamed butter and seasoned 
to taste with Worcestershire and a few grains of 
cayenne. Spread small thin rounds of toast with the 
mixture, cover with white of hard boiled egg rubbed 
through a sieve and place an olive in ■ the center of 






Dinners and Luncheons 23 

each. Cream soups are considered especially dainty. 
The deviled crabs are easily prepared. Pick the meat 
from the shells, mix with a cream sauce and season 
highly with mustard, cayenne and lemon juice. Wash 
and trim the shells, fill rounding with the mixture, 
cover with buttered crumbs and bake until brown. 
Parboil the sweetbreads, split and cut in pieces about 
the size of a large oyster. Egg and bread crumb 
them, fry, arrange on nests of boiled macaroni and 
pour the tomato sauce over them. Serve the cheese 
ramakins, which is cheese souffle baked in ramequin 
dishes, with this course. 

The chocolate loaf is made of a sponge cake, hol- 
lowed out, covered inside and out with a plain choco- 
late icing. Fill shortly before serving with cream, 
whipped, sweetened and flavored, and serve very cold. 

The first course in Menu II, is oyster cocktails, 
which are now in high favor. Serve either in sherry 
glasses, lemon, orange or grapefruit shells. Choose 
small, firm oysters of fine flavor and allow six to a 
person. Cover with a sauce made of a tablespoon of 
lemon juice, a teaspoon each of vinegar and catsup, 
a fourth of a teaspoon of Worcestershire, an eighth 
of a teaspoon of grated horseradish, two drops To- 
basco sauce and a few grains of salt. The Potage a 
la Reine is easily made and very excellent. Mash fine 
the yolks of three hard boiled eggs and mix with them 
a half a cup of bread crumbs, soaked until soft, in half 
a cup of rich milk. Stir into this gradually the cooked 
breast of a chicken chopped fine as meal and a pint 



24 Dinners and Luncheons 

of hot cream. Boil two minutes, then add a quart 
of clear chicken broth, salt, pepper and celery salt 
to season. To prepare the following course mix some 
flaked fish with a rich cream sauce, fill into scallop 
shells, cover with buttered crumbs and bake. Serve 
with the fillet of beef as a single course the mush- 
rooms, rolls, potatoes and asparagus. The hot rolls 
given throughout the menus are made with yeast ac- 
cording to any favorite rule, the different names only 
indicating a difference in shape. Orange frappe is 
simply an orange water ice frozen to a mush and 
served in frappe glasses. The rules for croquettes 
and salad are too familiar to need special repetition. 
Add some chopped almonds to the usual recipe for 
meringues and bake in a slow oven. When done, 
press in the bottoms. Fill with the parfait before 
serving. To make the parfait, beat the yolks of four 
eggs until light, add three-quarters of a cup of maple 
syrup and cook over hot water until it thickens. Beat 
until cold, then stir into a pint of cream whipped 
until stiff. Fill into a mould and let stand about four 
hours well packed in ice and salt. 

A favorite first course in season is blue points on 
the half shell, as given in Menu III. Allow six to a 
person, and arrange in a circle on a bed of cracked 
ice with a quarter of lemon in the center of the plate. 
Cut the bread for sandwiches very thin, butter it, place 
two pieces together and stamp in rounds. Serve the 
cream of tomato in bouillon cups with a spoonful of 
whipped cream floating on the surface. To make 
the Timbales, cook a pound of fresh halibut in boiling 



Dinners and Luncheons 25 

salted water, drain and force through a fine meat 
chopper. Add to this pulp three-quarters of a tea- 
spoon of salt, a few grains of cayenne, a third of a 
cup of cream whipped until stiff, and the stiffly beaten 
whites of three eggs. Fill small, buttered timbale 
moulds with the mixture, half surround with hot 
water and bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven. 
Serve with a white sauce, to which add the beaten 
yolks of eggs and, if liked, a little minced parsley and 
lemon juice. Instead of serving the usual cranberry 
sauce with the turkey, scoop out the inner pulp of 
some small red apples and fill them with a mixture 
made, during the summer, of the various fruits in 
season, almost their weight in sugar and preserved. 
Maraschino punch is simply a strong lemon ice as a 
foundation, flavored highly with maraschino. Serve 
in punch glasses with a maraschino cherry in the center 
of each. Make some tomato jelly with gelatine and 
mould it in small cups. Unmould on shredded lettuce, 
hollow out each one and fill with a mixture of diced 
celery, chopped English walnuts and rich mayonnaise. 
The almond cake is made of the plain white cake foun- 
dation, baked in two layers. Spread thickly between 
the layers and on top of the cake an abundance of boiled 
icing made very rich with a quantity of blanched alm- 
onds chopped very fine. Serve with each portion of 
plain vanilla ice cream a spoonful or more of sauce 
made of a cup of sugar and half a cup of water boiled 
to a thick syrup, and to which is added, when cool, four 
tablespoons of claret. Chill on ice. 



26 Dinners and Luncheons 

The Ease of a Course Dinner. 

Many of our housewives who want the elegance 
of a course dinner, yet who are limited to the services 
of one maid, would be much amazed at the ease with 
which they can both cook and serve if a little fore- 
thought be used in the menu. 

Cocktail. — A preliminary cocktail, prepared be- 
forehand from a bottled sauce or catsup and marinated 
oysters or clams, makes a good beginning and can be 
made ready in the early morning and placed on ice 
to great advantage. 

Soup. — A clear soup with vermicelli or noodles 
can be cooked the day before and may simmer quietly 
for half an hour before serving time without further 
care. 

Fish. — Fish is well represented by deviled crabs, 
seasoned and turned into little mounds in the center 
of cockle shells. This may be done any time several 
hours previous to the feast and all they need at meal 
time is a simple browning in the oven. 

Meat. — Large and substantial roasts are not only 
hard to prepare and serve but also fill the oven to the 
exclusion of everything else, so why not have delicious 
little steaks, fillet of beef, with canned French peas, 
and pomme de terre au gratin, served in ramekins 
and prepared early in the day from mashed potato and 
a sprinkling of grated cheese. 

Salad. — Most salads may, without serious injury, 
be mixed several hours before using and placed in a 
large bowl in the refrigerator, placing it on the let- 



Dinners and Luncheons 2J 

tuce leaves at serving time. Cheese balls are better 
made early and iced. 

Dessert. — Certainly for dessert nothing could be 
more delicious, more appetizing or more decorative 
than individual Charlotte Russe, more popular than 
ice cream with hot maple or chocolate sauce and 
stuffed wafers, or more soul satisfying than a tutti 
frutti French cream, all of which may be either 
ordered from the caterer or made at home early. 

With bon-bons, coffee, cigars and liqueurs (if used) 
this provides for a really elaborate dinner of eight 
courses, which could be prepared for that matter by 
the housewife herself in the forenoon, inasmuch as the 
only thing which must be actually cooked at mealtime 
is the steak. Almost any maid could be trusted to do 
the rest. 

A Fine Menu. 

Shell Fish, 

Bread and Butter Sandwiches, 

White Bouillon, Creme de Marron, 

Wafers, Maraschino Cherry, 

Pate Franciere, Tarragon Eggs, 

Salmon Creams, Green Dressing, 

Whole Small Yellow Tomatoes, French Dressing, 

Roast of Sirloin, Pickled Walnuts, 

Stewed Brussels Sprouts, Creamed Mashed Potatoes, 

White Sherry Sherbet, 

Broiled Quail, Green Grape Jelly, 

Salade Mignon, Salade de Cherry, 

Cheese Cakes, 



28 Dinners and Luncheons 

Roses Glace Daintee, Petite Fours, 

Salon Refreshment, 

G laces de Fruits, Confections, 

Nuts, 

Cafe, Cordials, 

"Creme de Marron" — (Nut Soup.) — One quart 
of chestnut meats which have been skinned, then stew 
tender in enough water to a little more than cover. 
Press through a fine sieve into the cooking pot, then 
add one quart of white stock. Heat to boiling point, 
then add ample pinch of salt and dash of white pepper, 
few drops of nutmeg, onion and celery essence. Lastly 
one pint of beaten cream. Color a rich green with 
a few drops of spinach extract. 

Salade Mignon. — Two medium sized white po- 
tatoes pared and steamed tender, then cooled and 
cut into neat dice. One cup of solid cooked peas, one 
cup of small button mushrooms, one cup of finely 
minced celery, one cup of small pickled white onions 
cut into halves. Mix the vegetables lightly with a 
good white mayonnaise, then fashion in pyramid form 
on salad plate, and garnish with lettuce hearts and a 
few pink geranium blossoms. 

Pate Franciere. — Line eight fluted pate tins with 
a delicate pastry crust, then fill with rice and bake 
a dainty brown in moderate oven. Remove the rice 
and fill them with the following force meat: Two 
pairs of chicken livers, steamed tender then minced 
fine, four steamed cocks combs, one cup of fried scal- 
lops. Moisten the ingredients with a brown gravy 
highly seasoned with paprika and truffle, and fill 






Dinners and Luncheons 29 

neatly into the crusts. Put on a perforated top previ- 
ously baked, and serve on a folded napkin. 

Roses Glace Daintee. — One half package of 
gelatine soaked in one and a half cups of white wine 
for thirty minutes, then set the bowl into boiling 
water, until the gelatine is dissolved. Add one half 
cup of sugar, a few drops of orange flower water to 
flavor, a few drops of spinach extract to color a deli- 
cate green. Strain and set away to cool. 

When it begins to thicken beat in one pint of 
whipped cream. Add two ounces of candied rose 
petals, turn into square mold and when set turn out 
on lace paper mat on crystal dessert platter. Garnish 
with roses. 

Here are three more menus: 

Watermelon Cut in Dice Shape Piled on Plate with 

Wreath of Cress, 

Broiled Spring Chicken, Strips of Bacon, 

New Potatoes Creamed, Broiled Tomatoes, 

French Rolls, Spiced Peaches, 

Pineapple Mousse, 

Coffee. 

Out of the beaten track : 

Little Neck Clams on the Half Shell, and without 
the customary slices of lemon and various sauces and 
horseradish. It is a mistake to spoil the flavor of 
any food with highly-seasoned sauces. 

Next, Chicken Okra Soup, into which, just before 
serving, is poured a small pitcher of plain cream. 

For the fish course, instead of the usual small sepa- 



30 Dinners and Luncheons 

rate portions, have a Planked Whitefish served from 
the plank, with Plain Butter Sauce. Accompanying 
this have small Baked Potatoes, cut open in the center 
and with a small piece of butter placed in each one. 

Instead of the hereditary Cucumber Salad, have 
young cucumbers quartered lengthwise, not sliced. 
Cucumbers prepared in this way are much more de- 
licious, because the knife cuts through most of the 
seeds. They should be pared so that a great deal of 
the outside is taken off. The best dressing is about 
three parts olive oil and one part vinegar, with a 
little pepper and salt, poured over the cucumbers just 
before serving. Cucumbers allowed to stand in dress- 
ing for any length of time become rubbery and in- 
digestible. 

Here serve for each guest half a small Broiled 
Chicken on Toast, with Potatoes au Gratin, and large 
delicious young Marrowfat Peas. 

Serve as a separate course, Lettuce cut in thin strips, 
over which is sprinkled powdered sugar and a plentiful 
amount of plain cream is poured. 

For dessert have a large dish of delicious ripe straw- 
berries. 

Following this have plain unsweetened wafers but- 
tered with Roquefort Paste (which is made of Roque- 
fort cheese and butter in equal quantities) and dusted 
with cinnamon. Then serve Turkish coffee. 

A Mid-Summer Dinner. 

Have table prettily decorated with a centerpiece of 
ice and ferns. The ice ffozen in a miniature iceberg, 



Dinners nad Luncheons $1 

and encircled by low, spreading maidenhair ferns and 
gleaming tiny opalescent lamps. Keep the candles for 
the lamps in the ice chest all day and. they will burn 
slowly and steadily through the evening. Let cut glass 
canoes hold the nuts, olives and bon-bons. The meat 
courses should be served in thin white Japanese porce- 
lain, but the other viands are to be served in cut glass 
dishes. The name cards are made of squares of gray 
paper simply lettered with the guests' names and the 
date — the letters formed by icicles. The menu is as 
follows : 

Clams, 
Cold Bouillon, 
Soft Crabs, 
Mushrooms, Fillets of Beef, 

Beets, Potato Straws, 

Tomatoes, Sweetbreads, 

Chicken Salad a la Prince, 
Peach Ice, 
Curacoa Cream, 
Frozen Melon, Coffee. 

The clams are served in ice shells, lying on beds of 
crisp cress, and the bouillon, strong and highly sea- 
soned, served in little cut glass bowls. With the 
fricasseed crabs serve a smooth cool sauce, having lemon 
and mustard as its predominating flavor. Juicy little fil- 
lets of beef, that melt in the mouth, are next brought 
on lettuce leaves, with fricasseed mushrooms on toast, 
frozen pickled beets and potato straws. The sweet- 
breads are parboiled, chopped up with asparagus tips 
and truffles, and formed into cones with white chaud- 



32 Dinners and Luncheons 

froid sauce, then chilled to the freezing point. With 
them are served tomatoes filled with shaved ice, 
chopped cress and tartare sauce. But the triumph of 
cookery is the salad, each ingredient proportioned and 
blended into a pleasing whole. The white meat of 
two chickens, cut into small fillets and each dipped 
into a semi-fluid jelly made as follows: Three hard 
boiled eggs, an anchovy, one tablespoonful of 
minced capers, two tablespoonfuls of grated ham, 
one teaspoonful of chopped parsley and a pinch of 
chili pepper rubbed through a sieve and mixed well 
with two tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise and three of 
semi-fluid aspic. Then small molds are lined with 
aspic and a fillet — ornamented with strips of beets 
and cucumbers — put in each; enough aspic to cover 
poured in and the molds set on ice. 

A rich mayonnaise is made, and peas, cut up cucum- 
bers and string beans stirred through it. When the 
time comes to serve the salad, the molds are turned 
out on leaves of crinkly white lettuce, with a border 
of mayonnaise around them. The peach sherbet is 
served in little fluted cups of ice, set in a circle of fern 
fronds and pink carnations on cut glass plates. Three 
drops of cochineal are added to the ice just before 
freezing to give it a delicate pink hue. After the gela- 
tine is dissolved in a rich custard and begins to 
thicken, the curacoa and the whipped cream are added, 
and stirred together very lightly. Individual orange- 
shaped molds are filled with the cream and put on 
ice to harden. When turned out of the molds, a 
little twig and leaves of crystalized ginger are inserted 



Dinners and Luncheons 33 

in each orange. Sherry wine is poured in the heart 
of the melon, and, after it has ripened on ice for two 
hours, the melon is cut open and the seeds removed. 
Cut out oval-shaped pieces with a big spoon and set 
back on the ice till wanted. Take to the table in a deep 
glass bowl, splints of ice shining among its juicy pink 
morsels. Then the coffee, the toasted crackers and 
blocks of frozen cheese. 

Luncheon Menus. 

There are but few particulars in which a formal 
luncheon differs materially from a dinner. Fruit or 
a fruit salpicon is usually preferred to oysters as a first 
course. The soup or bouillon is served in cups rather 
than soup plates, and entrees or chops take the place 
of heavy joints or roasts. The usual hour for a 
luncheon is between one and two o'clock, and arti- 
ficial light is considered inappropriate for such an 
occasion. If the table used is a handsome and highly 
polished one, the cloth may be dispensed with, if 
desired. Instead use a handsome center piece with 
small doilies under the plates and other dishes to pro- 
tect the table. If there are a large number of guests, 
they are usually served at small tables, prettily deco- 
rated with a few flowers. 

If the luncheon is to be a formal affair word your 
invitation thus: "Mrs. Harris requests the pleasure 
of Mrs. Brown's company at luncheon, Tuesday, Sep- 
tember twenty-seventh, at one o'clock. " If it is an 
informal affair simply write a little note on this order : 
Dear Mrs. Brown, 



34 Dinners and Luncheons 

Will you not join us at luncheon Tuesday at one o'clock? 
My friend, Mrs. Black, is with me and I should like to have 
you meet her. 

Sincerely yours, 

Date. 

Put your street and number at the head of the 
note. Invitations to informal luncheons are also per- 
missible by telephone or verbally. 

Simple Luncheon. 

White Grapes on Mat of Natural Leaf, 

Creamed Oysters in Swedish Timbale Cases, 

Saratoga Potatoes, Twin Biscuits, Pickles, Olives, 

Moulded Chicken in Aspic, Mayonnaise Wafers, 

Marshmallow Cake, Orange Jelly, Whipped Cream 

Chocolate. 

Have the fruit at each place when the guests are 
assembled. Garnish with any preferred flowers, which 
should serve also as a souvenir of the occasion. Sub- 
stitute other fruit if grapes are not seasonable. Both 
timbale cases and Saratoga potatoes given in the next 
course, may be prepared early. The potatoes, of 
course, must be reheated. Fill the creamed oysters 
into the cases, surround with the potatoes and serve 
the biscuits, olives and pickles on the same plate. Make 
the biscuits with baking powder, roll out the dough 
half the usual thickness, cut out and put two rounds 
together, brushing first the lower round with melted 
butter. To make the moulded chicken, separate some 
stewed chicken into small pieces. Fill loosely into 
small buttered moulds with a slice of hard boiled egg 



Dinners and Luncheons 35 

in the bottom of each. Cover with the strained and 
clarffied chicken broth, to which sufficient gelatine has 
been added to stiffen it, and stand aside to harden. 
Turn out on shredded lettuce and serve surrounded 
with mayonnaise. Bake a sponge cake in a large sheet, 
cover thickly with boiled icing and decorate with 
marshmallows cut in halves, and placed on the top at 
regular distances. Cut in squares, with a marshmellow 
in the center of each. The orange jelly may be made 
more elegant if candied fruit and nuts are added to it. 

More Elaborate Luncheon. 

Salpicon of Fruit, 

Sweet Wafers, Cream of Celery, Crisp Crackers, 

Olives, Pickles, Salted Almonds, 

Lobster a la Newburg, Puff Paste Points, 

Fried Chicken, Vermicelli Toast, Shredded Potatoes, 

Oyster Patties, Mushrooms, Waldorf Salad, 

Popcorn, Bon Bons, Nuts, Figs and Raisins, Macaroons, 

Frozen Pudding, Cream Mints, Coffee. 

For the salpicon of fruit, make a foundation of three- 
quarter orange juice, one-quarter lemon juice, and 
powdered sugar to sweeten. Add sliced bannanas and 
other fruit in season. Serve very cold in punch glasses. 
Serve the cream of celery in bouillon cups with 
whipped cream on top. The puff paste points and 
patty shells may be made of the same paste. Serve 
the fried chicken, vermicelli toast and potatoes on one 
plate. If very young spring chickens are used, cut in 
halves or quarters; larger chickens may be cut in 
smaller pieces. It is nice, only rather expensive, to 



36 Dinners and Luncheons 

use the breasts only, cut in two or three pieces. To 
make the vermicelli toast, cut the bread in rounds and 
toast it, cover with a rich, thick cream sauce, to which 
add the chopped whites of several eggs, and sprinkle 
thickly over all the yolks rubbed through a ricer. A 
pretty way of serving the Waldorf salad is in apple 
cups. Cut off the tops and hollow out some large red 
apples, fill with a mixture of the scraped apple, celery, 
nuts and mayonnaise, replace the top and insert a 
celery plume for the stem. Serve surrounded with 
hot buttered popcorn. A plain, but very elegant frozen 
pudding is easily made of whipped cream, sweetened 
and flavored. Pack in a mold in layers, dot each layer 
liberally with candied fruit, nuts and grated chocolate. 
Pack in ice and salt for at least four hours. 

Of course these dishes can be varied to suit the 
season and the occasion. The main thing is to be 
prepared for your company by being at home yourself, 
and in this way you will make everybody else at home. 

A Berry Luncheon. 

For table decorations, ribbons and candle shades 
use crushed strawberry tints; flowers to correspond. 
Primroses in a pinky purple are good. Blossoms tied 
with white satin ribbon make pretty decorations. 

Instead of an oyster course, have strawberries 
served European fashion, with their hulls on, sprinkled 
with powdered sugar. At the end of the meal serve 
strawberry shortcake, the real Southern article. 

Fill the rolled French omlette with strawberry 
jam. 



Dinners and Luncheons 37 

The bonbons are strawberries dipped in white 
fondant. 

Midsummer Luncheon. 

For a small luncheon have on the table four cut 
glass bowls filled with waterlilies, resting on the lily 
pads set on chop plates filled with water. In the center 
of the table three tall cathedral candles rising from 
a mass of asparagus fern. Have the bonbons in green 
and white and the pistachio nuts in bohemian glass 
bowls of pink, gold, violet and green. Make the 
place cards of waterlilies cut out of watercolor paper 
and painted. The menu is red and white raspberries, 
iced clam bouillon, lamb chops, peas, potato roses, 
cucumber and nut salad served in green peppers cut 
to imitate lily buds, ice cream of pistachio and lemon 
ice molded in pond lily forms, cakes iced in green 
and white and coffee. 

A Rural Luncheon. 

For the main course prepare young chickens cut 
in halves and fried Southern style. Serve with hot 
cream gravy and corn fritters. On the side of the 
plate put potato croquettes and two slices of thin, 
crisp bacon. A crisp salad of sliced tomatoes or stuffed 
tomatoes and strawberries and cream would make 
this a simple appetizing meal which you need not 
hesitate to serve your city friends. A delicious dish 
is macaroni Milanaise. Cook spaghetti well, fry it 
in butter and serve with mushrooms. Also serve small 
bits of tongue, grated Swiss cheese and a tomato 



38 Dinners and Luncheons 

sauce. Morning glories make a pretty table decora- 
tion. Place them on the vines in a cut glass bowl in 
the center of the table and let them run riot over the 
cloth. Paint morning glories in the corner of the 
name card. Serve; the strawberries from a china 
platter wreathed in the morning glories. 

Buffet Luncheon for Sixty. 

For the first course have luscious fresh strawberries 
served on strawberry leaves dotted with tiny wild 
flowers and on flowered plates. With the straw- 
berries the sugar is served in tiny paper cups. The 
second course is puree of corn served in odd Egyptian 
cups with whipped cream on top. The chicken cro- 
quettes are molded in form of tiny chickens with 
cloves for the eyes, and bits of celery tops for wings. 
The chicken rests on a nest of fried shoestring po- 
tatoes. With this is served a round of toast with 
first a slice of fried tomato and on top of that creamed 
asparagus tips. On the same plate are hot rolls and 
tiny pickles. Salted pecans and almonds should be 
passed during the entire luncheon. The salad course 
is a head of lettuce for each one. The heart of the 
lettuce is removed and filled with cucumber salad. 
Cheese straws are served with this. The ice cream 
is served in the form of strawberries and rests on a 
paper doily resembling Mexican drawnwork. The 
cake is a tiny white column, iced, with two candy 
strawberries on the side. The candies are pepper- 
mints in form of strawberries. Coffee served as a last 
course. 



Dinners and Luncheon 39 

CHAPTER III. 

DINNERS AND ENTERTAINMENTS FOR 
PATRIOTIC, HOLIDAY AND SPE- 
CIAL OCCASIONS. 

Valentine Luncheon. 

Here is a Valentine luncheon for young girls sug- 
gesting the "Sweet Sixteen'' idea in a novel and beauti- 
ful manner. Spun sugar should be used exclusively in 
most of the table decorations. Have a round table 
set in pure white and crystal, the latest fad. At each 
girl's plate have a flower done in candy in a realistic 
manner. 

On each side of the table have small, red heart- 
shaped candy baskets filled with red candy hearts. 
Imitation baskets of rock candy tied with bows of 
candy ribbons holding preserved citron, ginger and 
nuts glace. The fruit salad should be served in paper 
cases imitating pink roses. Over the salad have a 
white mayonnaise dotted with pink rose petals. The 
crackers heart shaped. The ice cream should be 
served in white candy baskets with tall handles. For 
place cards use pink hearts. 

A Lincoln Dinner. 

As most of the evening is spent in the dining-room, 
particular attention is given to the decoration of it, 
and the appointments of the table, to make them 
original and attractive. The national colors prevail 



40 Dinners and Luncheon 

in the use of bunting and flowers, and none save those 
peculiar to February should be utilized; tropical 
foliage is dispensed with, and, inasmuch as Kentucky 
was Mr. Lincoln's native state, only such evergreens 
as are native to that commonwealth — as holly, cedar, 
laurel, etc., — should be used to supply the necessary 
greenery disposed about the room, the particular ar- 
rangement of which must be decided by the fur- 
nishings therein and by individual taste. 

The table is laid in the regulation white, dotted 
over with American Beauty petals and violets, the 
edge being draped in laurel tied with tri-colored rib- 
bon. In the middle is laid a round mat of woodland 
moss to simulate bluegrass, and on it rests a miniature 
log cabin, around which is built a fancy rail fence 
made of chocolate sticks; a number of little pick- 
aninnies are seen playing about the house, and grin 
out at the guests, which renders the effect very realis- 
tic and interesting. Little jugs tied with blue ribbon 
are also prominent features. In front of each cover 
stands a diminutive barrel labeled "Old Bourbon, " 
but in reality holding nothing more harmful than de- 
licious bon bons, unless it happens to be a stag affair, 
when the genuine article would be preferable. Ices 
are presented in fancy moulds decorated with small 
darkies, and in the form of the dome of the Capitol, 
or any other suggestive figure that one prefers. 

In issuing the invitations the guests are informed 
that one and all will be expected to contribute to the 
general enjoyment by relating some story or anecdote 
of Lincoln, 



Dinners and Luncheons 41 

For St. Patrick's Day. 

Menu for Irish Luncheon: 

Cream of Potato Soup with Powdered Parsley, 

Celery Curls {Pigtails), 

Salted Almonds, 

Pigs in Blankets, 

(Oysters skewered in slices of bacon and broiled). 

Colds law, 

Croquettes shaped like Potatoes, resting in Beds of Cress, 

Stuffed Baked Potatoes (Fixed with tiny wooden skewers 

to resemble Pigs). 

Spinach served in Shamrock Decorated Cases, 

Shamrock-shaped Bread and Butter Sandwiches, 

Sweet Watermelon Pickle or Spiced Peach, decorated 

with Angelica Shamrocks, 

Salad of Trench Beans, Peas and Pearl Onions 

in Lettuce Leaf, 

Ice Cream in Slices decorated with Green Sugar Shamrocks, 

or Pistachio Ice Cream, 

Small Cakes decorated with Harps of Gold Candies, 

Coffee, Buttermilk. 

For favors there are Irish hats, clay pipes, Irish 
flags, harps, shamrocks, bon bon boxes, green snakes, 
etc. Oxalis answers for shamrock and pots of this 
arranged in a "fairy ring" with fairy lamps or green- 
shaded candles make a pretty, inexpensive centerpiece. 

Attractive Easter Luncheon. 
An extremely attractive Easter luncheon is as fol- 
lows: The table is round, covered with a snowy 



42 Dinners and Luncheons 

damask cloth, exquisite china, sparkling glass and 
silver. The center piece, a small gilded cart, wreathed 
in violets and smilax, holds decorated eggs colored in 
tints of yellow and purple, while mingling with them 
are clusters of violets tied with lavender ribbons, one 
end extending to the front of each cover and there at- 
tached to wee yellow chickens resting in nests of violets, 
in whose beaks are tiny cards with name in gold. 

Have also nests of spun sugar containing candy 
eggs, wax tapers burning under creamy lace shades. 
At each end of the table tall vases filled with ferns 
and garlanded with vines and at every plate daffodils 
growing in pots covered with green tissue paper. 
This is the menu: 

Clear Tomato Soup, 

Baked Shad, Bermuda Potatoes, 

Roast Spring Lamb, ' Creamed Onions, 

Orange Halves, 

Chicken Croquettes, Celery Salad, 

Neapolitan Ice Cream, Sponge Cake, 

Chocolate, 

Cap and Bells Luncheon for April First. 

For an April fool luncheon write your invitations 
in red ink on dunce caps, cut out of yellow paper 
and seal with red seal. Call your luncheon a "Cap 
and Bells ,, or "Harlequin" luncheon, as you prefer. 
Use bowls of red and yellow tulips, or red carnations, 
in yellow bowls. Rustic wall pockets with pussy 
willows, tied with pale green ribbon, are delightful 
April decorations. When the guests assemble give 



Dinners and Luncheons 43 

them snapping bon bons which make paper caps. Let 
them wear these caps to the dining-room. Do not 
put names on the guest cards; let each draw a card 
from a dunce cap. Have the card clowns cut from 
water-color paper and a suitable quotation and a num- 
ber on each one. This number marks the order of 
procedure to the dining-room and the privilege of 
choosing seats. In this way no one can regard the 
card quotation as offensively personal. If you wish 
an "April Fool" menu, serve it as a buffet luncheon 
before going to the table. You can find imitation 
dishes of every sort at the caterer's. 

Over the round dining table suspend a hoop wound 
with smilax or red and yellow ribbon. From this 
hoop hang tiny bells by invisible wires. A Japanese 
"windbell" is especially suitable. It consists of pieces 
of metal of odd shapes so suspended that they strike 
in the wind. Light your table by red candles with 
yellow dunce cap shades. In the center of the table 
have a clown or "Pierrot" in costume of red with 
large yellow dots, driving toy geese by red and yellow 
ribbons. These geese may be made of water-color 
paper and filled with salted almonds and bon bons. 
At each plate have a "fool's stick" or wand. This is 
made by winding a short stick with red and yellow 
ribbon, the ends of which are fastened at the top with 
a gilt-headed tack, and tiny bells are fastened to the 
ends of the ribbons. Use maidenhair ferns at the 
base of the center piece and the candlesticks to give 
a touch of green. Serve: 



44 Dinners and Luncheons 

Clam Boullin with Alphabet Crackers, 

Celery Curls, Radishes, 

Salted Almonds, Lobster Patties, 

Bread and Butter Sandwiches, 

Cucumber Jelly, Creamed Peas, 

Squab on Squares of Hominy in Wreath of Cress, 

New Potatoes with Parsley, 

Wild Grape Jelly, Mint Ice, 

Spring Salad of Sliced Cucumbers, 

Tomatoes, Radishes in Lettuce Cups, 

Cheese Straws, 

Vanilla Ice Cream in Cone Shape with Large Strawberry 

Tipped with Whipped Cream on Top and Ring 

of Fresh Strawberries at the Base. 

Decoration Day Luncheon. 

This pretty luncheon combines two features — it 
can be given on Decoration Day, and also as a bon 
voyage luncheon. Have bands of red, white and blue 
ribbon radiate from the center of the table to each 
plate, and a large cutglass bowl filled with white 
flowers, roses, hyacinths and narcissi and ferns stand 
in the center. Before each plate have a tiny ship in 
full sail, the name of the guest written in gilt on the 
silk sail. The favor for the guest of honor might be 
a bon bon box made in imitation of a shawl strap. 
Inside have a tiny silk flag. 

Red and white should be carried out in the menu. 
Have a white soup with whipped cream. The salmon 
salad served in white paper boats with tiny American 



Dinners and Luncheons 45 

fl'ags sticking in the prow. The ices frozen in form 
of flags. The cakes red, white and violet icing. 

For a Hallowe'en Dinner. 

Have a big pumpkin filled with yellow chrysanthe- 
mums for the center of the table and at each place 
a tiny pumpkin made into a candle with a green 
pumpkin leaf shade. Light the room with jack o* 
lanterns or yellow Chinese lanterns. For the menu 
serve cream of corn soup in yellow bowls. Serve 
turkey, cranberry jelly, mashed turnips, baked sweet 
potatoes, on yellow plates. Serve fruit salad in the 
red apple cups, with pumpkin pie and yellow ice 
cream frozen in shape of pumpkins, for dessert. Serve 
coffee in yellow cups. 

Fourth of July Dinner. 

A beautiful summer dinner for July Fourth is as 
follows: On the table have a centerpiece of pine- 
apple cloth over pale green satin,, on which place a 
flat willow basket of green and white striped grasses 
that border the garden flower beds. From this basket 
have wavy lines of pale green gauze ribbon reaching 
to each corner of the table, the ribbons ending in flat 
bouquets of daisies tied with grasses. The dinner 
cards should be cut out of watercolor paper in the 
shape of long, narrow spikes of lilies and fastened to 
the glasses by flaps on the backs. The menu is clam 
bisque; lobster cutlets with egg sauce; timbales of 
sweetbreads; new carrots with fine herbs; crown of 
lamb with mint sauce; potato croquettes and salsify; 



46 Dinners and Luncheons 

peach ice; truffle-stuffed squab, cress; asparagus and 
lettuce salad; green cornucopiae of ice cream filled 
with lemon ice; white cake with green icing; coffee, 
nuts glace. 

A Luncheon for Thanksgiving. 
Have this sentiment painted on a white or dark gray 
background framed in cedar boughs and placed over 
your mantel : 

The waning year grows brown and gray and dull, 
And poets sing November, bleak and sere ; 
But from the bounteous garnered harvest store, 
With grateful hearts we draw Thanksgiving cheer. 
Place a row of white candles in pewter candle- 
sticks across the mantel and display all the old china, 
pewter, brass and copper about the dining-room. Use 
cedar boughs to decorate the chandelier and plate rail. 
In the center of the bare table have a miniature stack 
of wheat (the florist can furnish this). Peeping out 
of the wheat have toy turkey candy boxes filled with 
almonds or hickory nut meats and raisins. Have the 
candles on the table set in flat cedar wreaths and scat- 
ter pine needles over the surface of the table. At each 
plate have a little doll dressed in Puritan costume with 
the name card tied around her neck. If one wishes to add 
a bit of color to the table use old-fashioned blue and 
white or colored bowls, in one pile glossy red apples, 
in another purple and white grapes, in another oranges. 
Here are some suitable Colonial dishes: Brown bread, 
roasted fowl, oysters in every style, cakes of Indian meal 
called bannocks which are spread before the fire on 
large tins and baked before the fire, brown sugar and 



Dinners and Luncheons 47 

molasses for sweetening; fruit cake, molasses cake, 
pumpkin, apple and mince pie; jellies, jams and con- 
serves (a sweet mixture of fruits). Use all the old- 
fashioned china and silver possible. 

Thanksgiving Dinner. 

First an old-fashioned oyster stew served in old 
white, gold-banded tureen. 

Next fish-balls — not great, soggy old-fashioned fish 
cakes, but the daintiest little golden-brown balls, 
fried in a basket in hot fat, and not more than an 
inch in diameter, just a good mouthful. Have them 
served individually, smoking hot, heaped up in the 
daintiest little piles, with a few tiny sprigs of baby 
parsley for garnish. 

Next will come the turkey, a monster bird, "with 
stuffing" made of Italian chestnuts. 

It goes without saying that with this will be served 
the historic cranberry jelly, which may be moulded 
in a square tin and served in tiny cubical blocks. After 
the sweet potatoes are baked the contents will be re- 
moved, whipped light as a feather with two well- 
beaten eggs, a little milk, pepper, salt and butter, the 
skins refilled, stood on end in a pan and the tops 
browned in the oven. 

Then Roman punch. 

Then two good old-fashioned pies, one pumpkin, 
the other mince, each about two inches thick. 
A Christmas Dinner. 

If one wishes to develop the idea of Santa and his 
sleigh, buy a doll and dress as Santa and fashion a 



48 Dinners and Luncheons 

sleigh out of cardboard and color red. About Santa 
and his sleigh, which may be filled with bonbons or 
tiny gifts like animals from Noah's ark, etc., for the 
guests, have imitation snow of coarse salt or sugar, or 
cotton sprinkled with diamond dust. Have tiny sprigs 
of evergreen standing upright for trees. At each plate 
have a tiny sleigh filled with red and green candies 
and light the table with red candles and shades 
in shape of Christmas bells. Have the din- 
ner cards ornamented with little watercolor Santa 
Claus' heads or little trees. If one uses the Christmas 
bell idea have the bells covered with scarlet crape 
tissue and swung from the chandelier. One can have 
the letters on them spell "Merry Christmas." In the 
center of the table place a mound of holly with bright 
red berries; have red candles arranged in any design 
one chooses, and far enough away so their heat will 
not ignite the tissue paper bells. White paper shades 
with sprays of holly painted or tied on make pretty 
Christmas shades. Have the bonbons, nuts, salads 
and ice cream served in cases in shape of bells, or have 
the ice cream frozen in bell shape. If one wishes to 
decorate with the tiny trees, fasten them upright in 
flower pots and cover the pots with red paper. Hang 
bonbons or sparkling objects and tinsel or little favors 
of bells for the guests from the branches of the 
trees. The holly wreaths may be used in any way 
the fancy dictates — a large center wreath and if the 
table is round, a second larger one near the edge of 
the table, leaving room for the plates or single candle- 
sticks set in tiny wreaths at intervals between the 



Dinners and Luncheons 49 

larger wreaths. A wreath dinner is very pretty 
and easy to plan, for the different dishes may be gar- 
nished with wreaths of parsley, radishes, endive, cress, 
or the sweets with rings of kisses, macaroons, whipped 
cream roses, candies, etc. 

Here is a suitable menu. Oyster or clam cocktail, 
wafers, consomme, bouillon or cream of celery soup, 
celery, radishes, small square crackers. If one wishes a 
fish course, creamed lobster or salmon w T ith potato 
balls. Roast Turkey or game of any sort, glazed 
sweet potatoes, corn fritters, creamed peas, peach, cur- 
rant or grape jelly, hot rolls. Cranberry sherbet; nut 
salad with plain bread and butter sandwiches, indi- 
vidual plum puddings with burning brandy, ice cream 
in any desired shape, white cake or fruit cake if one 
does not have the plum pudding, cheese, crackers, coffee. 

An Unusually Original Dinner. 

A quail dinner given recently will furnish ideas 
for others who w T ish to give a dinner out of the ordi- 
nary. Let the oblong table on which the dinner is 
served represent a field with miniature shocks of grain 
and stubble in which are quail, pheasants' and other 
birds' nests. A border of toy guns stacked mark the 
edge of the field. At each man's place have a toy 
figure of a hunter with some toy fastened to the 
back telling some joke on the diner. The women can 
have birds' nest candy boxes surmounted by birds. 
The name cards can be English hunting scene postals. 



50 Dinners, and Luncheons 

This is the menu: 

Blue Points, 

Celery Hearts, Olives, Stuffed Olives, 

Cream of Asparagus with Asparagus Points, Crackers, 

Broiled Fresh Spanish Mackerel served on Lettuce Ribbons, 

Cucumbers, Cannon Ball Potatoes, 

Sherry, Champagne Punch, 

Quail on Toast, French Peas, Stewed Mushrooms on 

Toast, Hot Rolls, 

Champagne, 

(Salad, Head Lettuce, French Beans, Ring of Chopped 

Whites of Eggs, Ring of Powdered Yolks 

of Eggs, French Dressing,) 

Crackers and Melted Cheese, 

Chestnut Ice Cream molded in Form of Broiled Quail and 

Asparagus Tips, Eggnog Sauce, 

Coffee and Liqueurs in the Drawingroom. 

A Spring Dinner. 

To secure a pretty effect pull the extension table 
apart and fill in the center space with palms and ferns, 
keeping the foliage low enough not to interfere with 
the vision of the guests. Across each end of the table 
lay a pale green satin and lace cover on which place 
French baskets filled with yellow daffodils and pink 
tulips. Before each place set tall stem vases filled 
with yellow daffodils resting on wreaths of pink be- 
gonias. Have the pink and yellow candies in French 
baskets tied with the same colors. Use monograms of 
the guests on plain white cards with tiny silver boots 
tied to a corner for favors. Serve: 



Dinners and Luncheons 5 1 

Green Grapes Dipped in Sugar, 

Cream Salsify Soup in Bouillon Cups, 

Bread Sticks, 

Deviled Lobster in Shell, 

Cucumber Mayonnaise, 

Squab on Toast, Creamed Potatoes, 

Ice Cream in Form of Fruits, 

White Cake, Coffee. 

College Dinners. 

To those who may have the planning of college 
dinners, the description of this Harvard dinner may 
not come amiss. 

In the center of the table have a large bowl of red 
tulips; red shades on the candles standing at either 
end of the table. The favors can be small boxes in 
the shape of foot-balls filled with red candies. The 
place-cards in the shape of foot-balls, cut out of red 
card-board, and painted in black and white; by each 
plate a roll with a small Harvard flag, of silk. Place 
the olives, nuts and red candies in small paper cases 
covered with tissue paper, which match in shape as well 
as in color, the central bouquet of tulips. 

Even in the menu the color scheme may be carried 
out as far as possible with tomato bisque, deviled crabs 
served in the shells, chicken croquettes, fillet of beef, 
garnished with cress and radishes, beet salad and ice 
cream baskets filled with strawberries. The cro- 
quettes can be made in the shape of foot-balls. The 
beets for the salad are boiled until tender, and when 
cold scooped out and filled with dressed celery. 



52 Dinners and Luncheons 

A few curved cuts made around the sides of the beets 
give the effect of flower petals. The little cakes, served 
with the ice-cream, are covered with red frosting. 

If Princeton be the Alma Mater in whose honor 
the feast is spread, tiger-lilies should be the flowers 
used on the center of the table, and the menu would 
of course, differ much from the one already given. 
Instead might be substituted black bean soup with 
slices of hard boiled egg; fried scallops and Saratoga 
potatoes; sweet bread pates; chicken with sweet po- 
tatoes; and carrots cut with a vegetable cutter into 
what are called shoestrings; lobster salad served in 
paper boxes, having around the outside, ruffles of 
orange crepe paper; and orange ice served in the nat- 
ural oranges. If one prefers a change from the wish- 
bone creation, Noah's Ark tigers may stand guard 
over the pates. 

A Yale dinner would be the most difficult to arrange 
as there are no fruits or vegetables that could rightly 
be called blue, unless some varieties of grapes and 
plums might be considered as coming under that head. 
But with a large central bouquet of cornflowers, with 
blue ribbons extending from this to each cover, where 
under the bow or rosette will be laid the corn-cob 
pipe or other souvenir, and with blue crepe paper used 
to decorate some of the dishes, the table will present 
quite as attractive an appearance as either of the other 
dinners; while the genial guests will probably enjoy 
the feast fully as well, and be quite as loyal, even if 
the roast and salad do not show the college colors. 



Dinners and Luncheons 53 

CHAPTER IV. 

"ICE BREAKERS," SUGGESTIONS FOR DIN- 
NER, MENU AND PLACE CARDS, TA- 
BLE STORIES, TOASTS, TABLE 
DECORATIONS. 

Ice Breakers. 

A dinner always stands a better chance of being a 
success if there is some little thing to break the ice at 
the start. A little verse might be placed on the card 
bearing the name of each guest. A particularly lively 
and cheerful young woman might have a verse some- 
thing like this: — 

"Fevers are contagious, 
But they're not by half 
As quickly, surely catching 
As Mrs. Thompson's laugh." 

A lady who gives much thought and attention to 
political reforms might have the following: — 

"Dogs have their days, so political parties 

Pass through their seasons of sunshine and storm, 
While longing eyes see the time that is coming, 
When women shall work a more lasting reform." 

An attractive young married woman might find 
this parody at her place: — 

"How doth the dainty matron fair 
Improve each shining hour, 
And work on men both old and young, 
Her fascinating power." 



54 Dinners nad Luncheons 

The wife of a distinguished landscape painter could 
get these lines: — 

"Why should one desire to travel, 
And in distant climes to roam, 
When she has the fairest landscapes 
Always hanging in her home." 

When the oyster plates are removed, a letter might 
be found under each one, addressed to the person sit- 
ting at the place. 

A man who is a well known promoter might re- 
ceive this: — 
"Dear Mr. J.— 

Is it true that you are interested in a project for connect- 
ing New York with the infernal regions by telephone ? If 
so, as soon as the wires are in operation, I should like to call 
ud Henry the Eighth, and find out what excuse he really 
made for getting rid of his wives. The demands upon me 
have been so great during this past year, that my stock of 
defenses has given out. Yours truly, 

Here place the name of some prominent criminal 
lawyer. 

A lady whose first baby is only a few months old, 
might have the following in the envelope bearing her 
name : — 

"Dear Madame: — 

Stick to the old reliable. There is only one perfectly pure 
and harmless soothing syrup, and that is made by yours, 

Respectfully, 

Mrs. Winslow." 

An artist with a considerable reputation for painting 
sheep, might enjoy the following: — 



Dinners and Luncheons 55 

"Dear Sir. 

Do you care to buy the small, stuffed lamb that has been 
in our window for several years past? It looks very natural, 
and would be much more quiet for a model than a live one. 

Respectfully, 
Washington Market. Beck, Butcher.'' 

Dinner, Menu and Place Cards. 

The place card may be plain white edged with gold, 
and the monogram or crest in gold with the guest's 
name written plainly across it. However, handsome 
cards as souvenirs of a dinner are much prized by 
travelers and the younger set and are especially in favor 
for breakfasts, luncheons, bridal affairs and college 
dinners and spreads. 

At the present moment there is the greatest diversity 
in guest cards. You may use a plain heavy visiting 
card with flowers stuck through the upper left corner, 
or decorated cards of every style, pen and ink, water- 
colors, etc. Cards for stag affairs have Old English 
pictures on a soft gray background ; souvenir postals 
make interesting guest cards; tiny fans, playing cards, 
ribbons, cards cut out of water-color paper imitating 
flower pots with flowers in bloom, cards decorated with 
sketches of brides and bridegrooms, kodak pictures of 
familiar scenes, boats, different sports — you can 
scarcely go amiss on your cards — the more original 
they are the better. The card is laid on the napkin 
at dinner or luncheon, or if it has an easel-like back 
is fastened to the wineglass. 

Graphology cards are an idea of the moment, and 



56 Dinners and Luncheons 

seem likely to prove more than a passing fad. Be- 
fore ordering a set of these, the hostess obtains from 
each guest a line in his or her own handwriting; the 
note of acceptance received can be used, if one is sure 
that a secretary has not been employed. These speci- 
mens are turned over to the stationer, who, in turn, 
places them in the hands of an expert graphologist. 
When the occasion arrives for which the writing was 
obtained, each guest finds at his cover a card bearing 
his name and a printed delineation of his character 
formed from the chirography. 

For guest cards at a large dinner have in the center 
of the table a gridiron of flowers and from it run 
orange and black ribbons to each plate. Have the 
guests' names in gilt letters on these ribbons, and each 
ribbon ends in a favor, which indicates the special fad 
of the guest. The oarsman finds a scull, the yachts- 
man a tiny yacht, the football captain a football, the 
hunter a tiny bear, the bowler ten pins, the poker 
player a miniature poker table, the glee club leader a 
tiny mandolin, and the man who wins hearts, a heart- 
shaped box with the miniature of a Gibson girl on its 
surface. 

The girl who cuts paper dolls may make quaint 
and unique menu cards by cutting out little picka- 
ninnies from shiny black kindergarten paper, then, 
little dresses, say of red, since this is the most striking 
combination, and pasting them on the plain cards. 

The way to make them is to place a bit of black 
and a bit of red paper together, fold them shiny side 
out, and the red outside the black, cut out the dolls, 



Dinners and Luncheons 57 

one black, one red, then snip off heads, hands and legs 
of the red. This leaves the little dresses all ready to 
go on. 

Before pasting on the dress make eyes and mouth 
in the little black head, by folding it perpendicularly 
and cutting out the mouth, then horizontally for the 
eyes. When the figure is once nicely pasted on the 
card, it is perfectly smooth, no sign of the various 
foldings appearing. 

A dinner for a mixed company of talented men and 
women is made attractive by clever little quotations on 
the place cards. A general quotation in quaint let- 
tering at the top of the card may apply to the feast; 
one following the name of the guest whose place it 
marks, may apply to the profession or personality of 
the guest. 

"Who can display such varied art, 

To suit the taste of saint and sinner, 
Who go so near to touch their heart, 
As you, my darling dainty dinner ?" 

"Who would not give all else for two pennyworth only of 
beautiful soup?" 

"Your dressing, dancing, gadding, where's the good in? 
Tell me, sweet lady, can you make a pudding?" 

"Smoking and tender and juicy, 
And what better meat can there be?" 

"The true essentials of a feast are only fun and feed." — 
O. W. Holmes, 



58 Dinners and Luncheons 

"May your appetite keep on good terms with your diges- 
tion." 

"A good dinner is better than a fine coat." — Proverb. 

"Sit down to that nourishment which is called supper." 
— Shakespeare. 

"To thee and thy company I bid a Jiearty welcome." — • 
Shakespeare* 

"No man can be wise on an empty stomach." — Geo. Elliot. 

For the Artist: 

"Industry can do anything which genius can do, and very 
many things which it cannot." — Henry Ward Beecher. 

"He is the greatest artist then, 
Whether of pencil or of pen, 
Who follows Nature." 

— Longfellow. 

For a Writer: 

"Wise poets that wrap truth in tales." — Carew. 

For the Architect: 

"He builded better than he knew." — Emerson. 

For the Actor: 

"We'll hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to Nature." — Shake- 
speare. 

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come." — Shake- 
speare, 

For the Young Bachelor: 

"A weather-beaten * lover but once known, 
Is sport for every girl to practice on." 

— Anon. 



Dinners and Luncheons 59 

"He had then the grace too rare in every clime 
Of being, without alloy of fop or beau, 
A finished gentleman from top to toe." 

— Byron. 

"That man that hath a tongue I say is no man 
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman." 

— Shakespeare. 

"A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman 
Fram'd in the prodigality of Nature, 
Young, valiant, wise and no doubt right royal ; 
The spacious world cannot again afford." 

— Shakespeare. 

"Oh, he was all made up of love and charms, 
Whatever maid could wish or man admire." 

— Addison 

For the Soldier: 

"They never fail who die in a great cause." — Byron. 

"The rascal hath good mettle in him." — Shakespeare. 

For the Young Girl: 

"Blessings be about you dear, wherever you may go." 
— Allingham. 

"The mildest manners and the gentlest heart." — Shakespeare. 

"A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, 
A jug of Wine, a loaf of bread — and Thou 

Beside me singing in the Wilderness. 
O, Wilderness were Paradise enow." 

— Omar Khayyam, 

"Grace was in her steps, heaven in her eyes; 
In every gesture dignity and love." 

— Milton. 



60 Dinners and Luncheons 

"Bright as the sun her eyes the gazers strike, 
And like the sun they shine on all alike." 

—Pope. 

"The clear blue eyes, the tender smile, 
The sovereign sweetness, the gentle grace, 
The woman's soul and the angel's face." 

—Anon. 

Apt sentiments in connection with each course add 
much to the interest or amusement of guests, but they 
must be chosen intelligently. 

The Dinner. 
If the dinner be to a guest of honor, have something 
like this at the head of the menu : 

"I beseech you all be better known to this gentleman." — 
Shakespeare. 

SAUCE 

"Come, gentlemen ! ! Here's sauce for the gods." 
"Let hunger move thy appetite, not savory sauce." 

— Babee's Book. 

WELSH RAREBIT 

"A man can die but once." — Henry IV. 
"Cowards die many times — the truly valiant never taste 
death but once." — Shakespeare. 

ROAST BEEF 

"England's darling" — Alfred Austin. 
"Cut and come again." — Crabbe. 

"Our old and faithful friend, we're glad to see you." — 
Shakespeare. 

WITH THE OYSTER COURSE 

"All the world is my oyster." — Anon. 

WITH CLAMS 

"Fruit of the wave, all dainty and delicious." — Croffut. 
"If you can't speak, sing; if you can't sing, imitate the 
clam." — Six Dinners. 



Dinners and Luncheons 6l 

SOUP — CONSOMME AND MOCK TURTLE 

"Of two evils, choose the least." — Thomas A. Kempis. 
"It's the rules of the house, sir ; you must take soup." — Mark 
L. Demotte. 

FISH 

"'Tis sweet and fresh — 'twas caught this night." — Beau- 
mont & Fletcher. 

"Now bring along your liars, and let the biggest one take the 
cake." — Six Dinners. 

TERRAPIN 

"A dish that I do love to feed upon." — Shakespeare. 

■LOBSTERS 

"On eight long feet these wondrous warriors tread 
And either end alike supplies the head." 

— Homer. 

SHRIMPS 

"Old Ocean, envious of my ladies crimps, 
Tried hard to copy them, and — presto! Shrimps!" 

— Six Dinners. 

FOR ENTRIES OF VARIOUS KINDS 

"Take every creature in of every kind." — Pope. 

"When I have tasted of this sacred dish, then shall my 
bones rest in my father's tomb in peace." — Beaumont & 
Fletcher. 

"Not to know me argues yourselves unknown." — Milton. 

FOR A SPECIAL OR NOVEL DISH 

"It's better to be out of the world than out of the fashion." 
—Swift. 

frog's legs 

"We sport in water or we dance on land." — Homer. 
"Though this be fun for you, 
'Tis death to us." —Fables. 

LAMB 

"Pray you, who does the wolf love?" — Shakespeare. 

"Ah, gentle lamb! 'Tis better that you be roasted and 
served to sympathizing human folk than be devoured un- 
gracefully 6y ravenous beasts." — Six Dinners. 



62 Dinners and Luncheons 

ROAST PIG 

"See him in the dish, his second cradle!" — Charles Lamb. 

"He hath a fair sepulchre in the grateful stomach of the 
judicious epicure, and for such a tomb might be content to 
die." — Charles Lamb. 

CHICKENS 

"We'll not eat crow, but him that crow'd." — Anon. 

TURKEY 

"Nothing in his life 

Became him like the leaving of it." — Macbeth. 

GOOSE 

"What's sauce for the goose 

Is sauce for the gander." — Old Rhymes. 

SUCCOTASH 

"These be the great twin brethren." — Macauley. 

MACARONI 

"Some Jay of Italy." — Cymbeline. 

ONIONS 

"So near will I be that your best friends shall wish I had 
been further." — Julius Caesar. 

GREEN PEAS 

"How green you are and fresh." — King John. 

GAME 

"Here's a pigeon so finely roasted it cries, 'Come eat me.' " 
—Swift. 

SALAD 

"I warrant there is vinegar and pepper in't. Twelfth Night. 

DESSERT 

" 'Tis the dessert that graces all the feast, for an ill end 
disparages the rest." — Art of Cookery. 

BON BONS 

"I can teach sugar to slip down your throat a million of 
ways." — Dekker. 

JELLY 

"Feel, masters, how I shake." — 2nd Henry IV. 

PUDDING 

"My morning incense and my evening meal the sweets of 
hasty pudding." — Barlow. 



Dinners and Luncheons 63 

ICES 
"I always thought cold victuals nice; 
My choice would be vanilla ice." 

— Holmes 

FRUIT 

"How gladly then he plucks the grafted pear, 
Or grape that dims the purple tyrants wear." 

— Horace. 

FIGS 

"In the name of the prophet, figs!" — Horace Smith. 

CHEESE 
'Tray, does anybody here hate cheese? I would be glad of 
a bit." — Swift. 

ROQUEFORT 

"At which my nose is in great indignation." — Tempest. 

"A last course at dinner without cheese," says Savarin, "is 
iike a pretty woman with only one eye." 

COFFEE 

"One sip of this 
Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight." — Milton. 

CIGARS 

"By Hercules ! I do hold it and will affirm it to be the most 
sovereign and precious herb that ever the earth tendered to the 
use of man. — B. Jonson. 

"The man who smokes thinks like a sage and acts like a 
Samaritan." — Buhier Lytion. 

CIGARETTES 

"I never knew tobacco taken as a parenthesis before." — B. 
Jonson. 

WINES 

"Good, mv Lord, vou are full of heavenlv stuff." — Henry 

vm. 

"I feel the old convivial glow (unaided) o'er me stealing-, 
The warm champagny, old particular, brandy, punchy feeling." 

— Holmes. 

"Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature if it be 
well used; exclaim no more against it." — Othello. 



64 



Dinners and Luncheons 



"I pray thee, take the cork out of thy mouth that I may 
drink."--^.? You Like It. 

"This wine should be eaten, it's too good to be drunk. 
— Swift. 

"Fill the goblets again, Cnacias. Let us drinK the last 
cup to the manes of famous Lysander, and then, though un- 
willingly, I must warn you of the approach of day. The host 
who loves his guests rises from the table when the joy reaches 
its climax. The pleasant memory of this untroubled evening 
will soon bring you back to this house, whereas you would 
be less willing to return if you were forced to think of the 
hours of depression which followed your enjoyment." — From 
"An Egyptian Princess" 

Two Pies 
"If you would know the flavor of a pie, 

The juicy sweet, the spice and tart, you must 
Be patient till the fiery core is cool, 
And bite a little deeper than the crust. 

If you would know the flavor of a man, — 

God's mud pie, made of Eden's dew and dust, — 

Be patient till love's fire has warmed him through, 
And look a little deeper than the crust." 

— Aloysius Coll. 

Table Stories. 

Upon one occasion when six fair women and half a dozen 
brave men, gathered round a hospitable board, had fallen into 
that state of "innocuous desuetude" from which nothing but 
heroic measures would relieve them, a still small voice was 
heard asking if any one present could tell why the "Athen- 
asian creed is like a tiger?" It chanced that no one present 
could guess, and when the propounder, a delicate, spirituelle 
looking woman declared that it was "because of its damnation 
clause," there was a roar of laughter that successfully put to 
flight all stiffness and formality. 






Dinners and Luncheons 65 

A well-known gentleman gained quite a reputation among 
his set by propounding a French riddle, which is sometimes 
called Voltaire's riddle, because no one ever answered it. He 
wrote on the back of a card the following: "Ga" and asked 
if anyone could make it out, saying the answer was what 
every one had or should have had when he sat down to 
dinner. The card went round the table and made conversa- 
tion for some time. After fruitless efforts, all gave it up, 
and he wrote underneath the "Ga" as follows: 

Capital G. Small a. 

G. grande. a petite. 

J' ai grande apetite. 
I have a good appetite. See? 

There is only one thing which is said to be worse than 
being called upon unexpectedly to make an after dinner 
speech — that is to prepare an after dinner speech and not 
be asked to deliver it. 

Over the teacups: "Do you believe that awful story they 
are telling about Miss Prim?" 

Ladies in Chorus — "Yes. What is it?" 

"Say, mister," said the little fresh air child as she watched 
the cattle enjoying their cud, "da you have to buy gum for 
all of them cows to chew?" 

I remember the Colonel from Missouri who forgot the 
name of the suburb he wanted to go to near Boston. "It runs 
in my head," said he to the hotel clerk, "its name is some- 
thing like whisky straight, though that is not it exactly. "Oh," 
said the clerk, "I know; you mean Jamaica Plain." "Yes, 
yes, that's it," said the Colonel, and he immediately ordered 
two whisky straights, — Henry C. Caldwell. 

"These Americanos," cries the affrighted Tagal, "are can- 
nibals." 

"What ever gave you such an idea?" asks the Moro. 



66 Dinners and Luncheons 

"I just heard one of those soldiers ask that pretty school 
teacher to come and eat a Filipino with him!" 

Lady — "Little boy, are you sure this butter is clean ?" 
Boy from the Country — "I low as how it ought to be. Ma 
and Sis set up half the night picking the specks out of it." 

Squire's daughter — "Do you think it is quite healthy to keep 
your pigs so close to the cottage?" 

Hodge — "I dunno, Miss. Noan of ther pigs ain't ever been 
ill." 

Emaciated Invalid (just arrived at the springs) — "Is it true 
that drinking these waters produces fat?" 

Native (weight 250) — "Produces fat? Why, stranger, when 

I came here I only weighed eight pounds, and look at me 



At a "literary dinner" in London, Mr. Zangwell told a 
story of a fat lady of his acquaintance. Her corpulence had 
so grown upon her that she resolved to consult a physician 
about it. She had had nc previous experience with "banting" 
of any sort. 

The doctor drew up a careful dietary for her. She must 
eat dry toast, plain boiled beef, and a few other things of 
the same lean sort, and in a month return and report the 
result to the doctor. 

At the end of the time the lady came, and was so stout that 
she could hardly get through the door. The doctor was 
aghast. 

"Did you eat what I told you?" he asked. 

"Religiously," she answered. 

His brow wrinkled in perplexity. Suddenly he had a flash 
of inspiration. 

"Did you eat anything else?" he asked. 

"Why, I ate my ordinary meals," said the lady. 



Dinners and Luncheons 67 

Considerate Little Girl — "Please, Mr. Keeper, will it hurt 
the elephant if I give him a currant out of my bun?" — 
Leisure Hours. 

Howard Paul is responsible for this anecdote of Lillian 
Russell. The fair vocalist was lunching at a restaurant and 
ordered "floating island" — a popular entremet. In due course 
it arrived, and on its snowy surface three little red ants were 
having a cheap picnic and wriggling about in ecstatic con- 
tortions on the banquet they were enjoying. "Waiter," said 
Miss Russell, "I asked you for an island, but I expressed no 
desire to have it inhabited — take it away and bring me a 
dessert island." 

A lank, awkward countryman presented himself at the 
clerk's desk in an American hotel, and, after having a room 
assigned to him, inquired at what hours meals were served. 

"Breakfast from seven to eleven, luncheon from eleven to 
three, dinner from three to eight, supper from eight to twelve," 
recited the hotel clerk glibly. 

"Jerushy!" ejaculated the country man, with bulging eyes, 
'When am I going to get time to see the town ?" 

A waiter in a restaurant once entered the room where a 
lady and gentleman were dining — they were just finishing 
their soup- — without any preliminary knock. What he saw led 
him to stammer: "A thousand pardons, Monsieur; I was too 
precipitate." "Why, you idiot," said the gentleman, "what 
are you standing there for, with your head under the tray? 
Did you never see a gentleman kiss a lady before in this 
restaurant?" "Oui, Monsieur, but nevaire before ze feesh — 
nevaire!" ■ 

"It ain't any trouble to get along in Europe, whether you 
know the language or not," said the man who had been on a 
"personally conducted." "Take Germany, for instance. One 
day I wanted a drink, and I went into one of the gardens and 
said to the waiter: "Look here, old man, I'm dry; do you 



68 Dinners and Luncheons 

understand? Dry !" and the next minute he came back with 
three beers." , 

Mrs. Smith — "I'm afraid you'll have to look for a new 
place the first of the month, Bridget." Fat Bridget — "What 
fur, Ma'am?" Mrs. Smith — "Mr. Smith objects to so much 
waste in the kitchen." Fat Bridget — "Lor, Ma'am, if that's 
all, I'll lace mesilf widin an inch of my life." 

"I want you to come and dine with me," said John to Pat, 
"though I can only offer you a nice piece of beef and boiled 
potatoes." "Don't make the laist apology about the dinner," 
said Pat, "it's the very same I should have had at home, 
barrin' the bafe." 

"You must find that impediment in your speech rather in- 
convenient at times, Mr. Brown." 

"Oh, n-o— everyb-body has his little p-peculiarity. Stam- 
mering is m-m-mine; what is y-yours?" 

"Well, reallv, Mr. Brown, I am not aware that I have 
any." 

"W-which hand d-do you stir y-your tea with?" 

"The right hand, of course." 

"W-well, that is y-your p-peculiarity; most p-people u-use a 
t— teaspoon." 

The second course of the table d'hote was being served. 

"What is this leathery stuff?" demanded the corpulent diner. 

"That, sir, is filet of sole," replied the waiter. 

"Take it away," said the corpulent diner, "and see if }'Ou 
can't get me a nice, tender piece of the upper, with the buttons 
removed." 

"Gracious," exclaimed Mr. Swellman, "The baby has eaten 
a lot of that dog biscuit." 

"Never mind, dear," replied Mrs. Swellman. "It just serves 
Fido right, for he's often stolen the baby's food — haven't you, 
Fido? 'Oo naughty 'ittle rogue, 'oo!" 



Dinners and Luncheons 69 

Once upon a time there was a young man who felt sure 
that within his bosom burned the incandescent light of dra- 
matic fire. To assure the world of this fact he secured a 
position as supernumerary in a theatrical combination which 
was presenting a repertoire of classical tragedies. 

Of course, all great careers have an humble start; so had 
his. All that was required of him was to come on R. U. E., 
when the lordly baron was about to take his regal bride to 
his proud ancestral halls, and inform him, and the audience: 

"My lord, the carriage waits." 

The leading lady, who played the fair young bride, was 
rather inclined to embonpoint, as we say when we wish to 
insinuate as delicately as possible that some one is fat. 

The budding genius had rehearsed his lines — or line — until 
he felt that he was letter perfect. He haunted the wings all 
evening until he heard his cue. Then he strutted onto the 
scene, struck a tragic pose, and announced excitedly: 

"My Lord ! She carries weights !" 



Frank Stockton tells a fish story. A gentleman asked a 
question of a boy who was fishing. The boy mumbled an in- 
distinct response. "Why don't you speak plainly?" said the 
gentleman. "What have you in your mouth?" 

"Wums — wums for bait," answered the boy. 

"That was the first instance I ever knew," remarked Mr. 
Stockton in telling the story, "of anybody really speaking with 
baited breath." 

Smith — "Did you ever see a woman trying to pull a cork 
out of a bottle, colonel ?" 

Col. Drinker — "No, suh ; and no gentleman will stand idly 
by and see a lady struggling to take a cork out of a bottle. It 
takes her too long, suh?" 

Wife — "We have been married twelve years, and not once 
during that time have I missed baking you a cake for your 
birthday. Have I dear?" 

Hubby — "No, my pet. I look back upon those cakes as 
milestones in my life." 



70 Dinners and Luncheons 

Jones — "You don't usually say grace at meals ?" 
Bones — "No; only when the minister is present." 
Jones — "Ah, I see. He not alone graces the occasion, but 
he occasions the grace." 

Doctor — "My dear young lady, you are drinking unflltered 
water, which swarms with animal organisms. You should 
have it boiled; that will kill them." 

Patient — "Well, doctor, I think I'd sooner be an aquarium 
than a cemetery." 

A tiny girl of seven gave a dinner party the other day, for 
which twelve covers were laid, and that number of small 
maidens sat down to dine. It was a real little girl's dinner, 
and the little hostess herself presided, sitting at the head of 
the table. She had been very anxious, in looking forward to it, 
to do everything as it should be done. 

"Mamma," she asked, "shall we say grace?" 

"No," said mamma, "it will be a very informal dinner, and 
I think you need not do that." 

That meant one less ceremony to be gone through, and was 
a relief, but the little lady was anxious to have all her small 
guests understand it. So, as they were gathered about the 
table, she explained: 

"Mamma says this is such an infernal dinner that we need 
not have grace today." 

Three different waiters at a hotel asked a prim, precise 
little man at dinner if he would have soup. A little annoyed, 
he said to the last waiter who asked the question: 

"Is it compulsory?" 

"No, sir," said the waiter. "I think it's mock turtle." 

Mistress — "Now, remember, Bridget, the Joneses are coming 
for dinner tonight." 

Cook — "Leave it to me, mum. I'll do me worst! They'll 
never trouble yez again!" 



Dinners and Luncheons 71 

Murphy — "Oi tell yez, Flaherty, th' saloon is th' poor 
mon's cloob. Troth, 6i don't see how he could git on wid- 
out it." 

Flaherty — "He couldn't. Iv there wor no saloons there'd 
be no poor min." 

A member of the police force came across a boy the other day 
who was wheeling home a load of oyster cans and bottles, 
and, curious to know what use the lad could put them to, he 
made a direct inquiry. 

"Going to throw them into our back yard," replied the boy. 
"I took two loads home yesterday." 

"But what do you use them for?" 

"I'd just as lief tell," continued the boy, as he spit on his 
hands to resume hold on the barrow. "We are going to have 
some relashuns come in from the country. We may not have 
much to eat, but if they see these cans and bottles and boxes 
they'll think we've had isters, champagne, figs and nuts till 
we've got tired of 'em, and are living on bread and taters for 
a healthy change." 

Col. Sam Reed was breakfasting at Delmonico's. After 
looking over the French menu he said to the waiter: 

"You may bring me some eggs blushing like Aurora, and 
some breeches in the royal fashion, with velvet sauce ; and for 
dessert be sure you bring a stew of good christians, and a 
mouthful of ladies." 

The astonished waiter said: 

"Sir, we don't serve such dishes." 

"Yes, you do," said the guest, pointing to the bill of fare — 
"Oeufs a la Aurore — culottes a la royale sacque veloute — 
compote de bon cretiens — bouchee de dames." 

"All right," said the waiter — "ready in two minutes, sir." 

"Patrick, you were on a bad spree yesterday." 

"Yis, Mr. Ellis, I was. Bless me if I weren't a-layin' in the 
gutter wid a pig. Father Ryan came along, looked at me, 
and says says he 'One is known by the company he kapes." 

"And did you get up, Patrick?" 

"No, but the pig did." 



72 Dinners and Luncheons 

Gladstone was a marvelous conversationalist and particularly- 
alive at dinner parties, where, by the way, in his more vig- 
orous days, he came rightly near monopolizing the conversa- 
tion. Two well-known men about town who prided them- 
selves on their ability to be interesting at the dinner table 
were invariably eclipsed when Gladstone was present. No 
matter what the subject broached, before it had proceeded far, 
the G. O. M. forged to the front, and by his familiarity with 
the question, became the focus of all eyes and ears. Tired of 
being thus overshadowed, the gentlemen referred to hit upon a 
plan for getting even, at least for the once. Selecting an 
abstruse and very unfamiliar subject, they delved into the 
Encyclopaedia Britannica and thoroughly posted themselves. 
The question was one on which scientists differed and so the 
conspirators took opposite sides, each prepared to maintain his 
view. At a convenient moment during the next dinner when 
they met Mr. Gladstone, the subject was sprung and imme- 
diately the two disputants went at it, hammer and tongs. For 
some time the fight raged hotly, no one else venturing to take 
part in the discussion. The trick was working capitally and 
the triumphant pair cast congratulating looks at one another. 
Mr. Gladstone hadn't spoken a word. Finally the hostess, in 
a momentary lull in the conflict, said: "What are your views 
about this matter, Mr. Gladstone; which do you think right 
now ?" "There is very little choice," returned the sly old fox, 
turning with a good natured smile to the disputants, "I made 
up my mind as to that when I wrote the article on the subject 
in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which, by the way, gentlemen, 
I see you have been studying very carefully." There was a 
moment of embarassing silence and then a roar. The con- 
spirators acknowledged themselves fairly beaten and since 
then they allow Mr. Gladstone the floor whenever he signifies 
a wish to occupy it. 

Points on Toasts. 

The dinner in private house or club where the ladies 
are at table during the toasts, is perhaps the most try- 



Dinners and Luncheons 73 

ing of all ordeals to the man not blessed with nerve. 

Toasts at dinner which are given in honor of some 
special guest are necessarily of the most informal kind. 
A bit of interesting personal reminiscence, with as 
much of the ego eliminated as possible, a good story 
(always and always the good story) a compliment to 
the guest of honor a few well chosen words (never ful- 
some) of praise for host and hostess, and in closing a 
few lines complimentary to the ladies. This pre-sup- 
poses one is expected to give a somewhat extended toast 
Ordinarily a story is sufficient. On one point never 
make a mistake — sit down before your friends have 
had quite enough of you, never keep on talking until 
the ladies vote you a bore and the men something 
more decided. 

The host should be the real toastmaster, though his 
formidable title is concealed under the informal man- 
ner in which he draws out his guests. At such a 
dinner the talks are very short; and generally be- 
tween courses, as no one can enter on a long disserta- 
tion and eat his dinner. Later when the dessert is 
removed, and the coffee, cigars and liqueurs brought 
in, the toasts come. If the guest of honor is a trav- 
eler the host may start him on his favorite topic by 
asking: "What do you consider the most danger- 
ous journey you ever took?" Then naturally will 
follow tales of wrecks, floods, hold-ups, trains missed, 
traveling in different countries, etc. If the host 
knows that Jones has the star story and is too modest 
to assert himself, it is his duty to call on Jones, not in 
a marked way, but easily, gracefully, helping him 



74 Dinners and Luncheons 

along by well-put questions until Jones forgets his 
embarassment and that he is telling a story. 

A man at a formal dinner assigned to "take in" a 
lady whom he has never met before, should take his 
conversational cue from her — no Chinese desecration, 
of course — and thereby avoid pitfalls to which the 
diffident and embarrassed are often led. Besides, it 
is woman's admitted privilege to "do all the talking," 
and she best gives the key note at dinners. 

For the informal dinner, be natural, good-natured 
and jolly. As ready to listen and to laugh heartily 
at the jokes of others as to talk. 

Do not keep silent because you have no spread eagle 
oration at command, your friends do not expect it. 
Tell your own interesting experiences, always re- 
membering how tiresome the repetition of the capital 
"I" becomes. 

Avoid telling jokes at the expense of another guest 
present. This may do at a stag supper, but an enemy 
may be made by making a friend ridiculous before the 
ladies. 

Make your talk very brief and in telling a story get 
to the point quickly without dragging in an endless 
number of uninteresting details. 

After you have told your story and made your hit, 
be content to give others a chance even if you have a 
host of good stories at command. 

If Brown is present do not steal his best story and 
tell it in his presence ; he will not thank you if you do. 

Good topics to avoid at a dinner where one does not 
know the personal history of each guest present, are 



Dinners and Luncheons 75 

divorces, jokes on foreigners of any nationality, mixed 
marriages, politics, religion, in fact anything that 
could be taken as a personal attack by another guest. 

Toasts. 
Origin of Toasts. 

The proposal of a health in an after-dinner speech 
dates back to mediaeval times. At that time the loving 
cup was used at every banquet. It was filled to the 
brim with wine and in the center was placed a piece 
of toasted bread. The cup circulated the table, each 
one present taking a sip of the wine. When it came 
back to the host he drained the remaining wine and 
ate the piece of toast in honor of all the friends assem- 
bled at his table. 

The ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Assyrians and 
the Egyptians drank each other's health at dinner, but 
post-prandial oratory was not adopted until modern 
times. The Greek toast was, "I salute you, be happy;" 
that of the Romans, "I drink your health." 

Etiquette of Toasts. 

It is highly improper for a person to drink to his 
own health, hence the only thing to db when one's 
health is being drunk by his friends is for the indi- 
vidual honored to leave his glass alone, and bow his 
thanks in a dignified manner, rising to talk only when 
he is called on for a speech. 

Perhaps one of the wittiest toasts on record is that 
of Franklin. After the victories of Washington had 
made his name well known throughout Europe, Frank- 



7 6 



Dinners and Luncheons 



lin chanced to dine with the French and English am- 
bassadors, when these toasts were drunk. The son of 
Britain rose and proudly remarked: "England — the 
sun whose beams enlighten and fructify the remotest 
corners of the earth." 

The Frenchman, glowing with national pride, 
drunk: "France — the moon whose mild, steady, 
cheering rays are the delight of all nations; consoling 
them in darkness and making their dreariness beauti- 
ful." 

This furnished Franklin with a fine opening and 
his quaint humor bubbled over in his retort: "George 
Washington — the Joshua, who commanded the sun 
and the moon to stand still, and they obeyed him." 

Old Negro Sol's Toast. 

Little ter-day and little ter-morrer, 
Out o' meal and boun' ter borrer ; 
% Hoe cake an' dab o' dough, 
Dash her down an' say no mo' ! 
Peace at home and pleasure abroad, 
Please your neighbor an' serve de Lord. 
God bless you 

Well may we ever be, 
111 may we never be; 
Here's to the President 
And good company. 

May health and happiness both be yours, 

And fortune smile on all you do; 
And we hope you feel like wishing us 

The same good things we're wishing you ! 

— From Royal Blue. 









Dinners and Luncheons 77 

God made man 

Frail as a bubble; 
God made love, 

Love made trouble. 
God made the vine, 

Was it a sin 
That man made wine 

To drown trouble in? 

May love, like wine, improve as Time advances, 

May we always have old wines, old friends and young cares. 

'Twas nectar fed 

Of old, 'tis said, 
Their Junos, Joves, Apollos; 

And man may brew 

His nectar too, 
The rich receipts as follows: 

Take wine like this, 

Let looks of bliss 
Around it well be blended; 

Then bring wit's beam 

To warm the stream, 
And there's your nectar, splendid! 

So, wreathe the bowl 

With flowers of soul 
The brightest wit can find us; 

We'll take a flight 

Towards heaven to-night, 
And leave dull earth behind us! 

— Thomas Moore. 

Bon Voyage. 
May every joy the traveler knows, 

Be yours upon the trip, 
May favoring winds fill out your sails 

And safely speed your ship. 



78 Dinners and Luncheons 

May rest and recreation bring 
Their meed of health and strength 

While under alien skies you roam, 
Then homeward turn at length. 

To those who have passed me on the highway and gave 
greeting, 

To the possible friends who have come my way, whose eyes 
lingered as they fell on mine, 

May they ever be eager with youth, and strong with fel- 
lowship 

May they never miss a welcome or want a comrade. 

— Marie McGee. 



Here's to man, God's first thought. 
Here's to woman, God's second thought. 
As second thoughts are best — 
Here's to woman. 

Drink, for you know not 

Whence you came nor why; 

Drink, for you know not why 

You go, nor whence. 

— Omar Khayyam. 

Here's to the press, the pulpit and the petticoat, the three 
ruling powers of the day. The first spreads knowledge, the 
second spreads morals, and the third spreads considerably. 

The Lord gave teeth to men, that they might eat, 
And then, to use them on, he gave us meat; 
But here's a health to that great man who took 
And brought the two together — to the cook! 

Family Dinner Toast. 

Here's a toast to the host who carved the roast; 
And a toast to the hostess — may none ever "roast" us. 



Dinners and Luncheons 79 

Ladies' Toast. 
The soldiers of America. 

Their arms our defense, our arms their reward; 
Fall in, men, fall in. 

To A Chaperone. 
Here's to the chaperone, 

May she learn from Cupid 
Just enough blindness 
To be sweetly stupid. 

— Oliver Her ford. 

For a Patriotic Dinner. 
If we drink to China, we drink the poison of the "Sick 
Man of the East;" if we drink to Italy, we put "The Boot" 
on the wrong foot; if we drink to Peru, we burn our lips on 
the equator; so let us drink to him who hath not harm in his 
heart, venom in his viens, nor flaw in his flag — Uncle Sam. 

Let us toast our huddled little brothers of the frigid North 
— the Esquimaux. They need i.t 

Father O'Flynn. 
Far renowned for larnin' and piety, 
Still I'd advance ye widout impropriety, 
Father O'Flynn as the flower of them all. 
Here's a health to you, Father O'Flynn, 
Slainte and slainte and slainte agin. 
Pow'rfulest preacher and tenderest teacher 
And kindliest creature in ould Donegal." 

To the stars and the stripes, 

To the land of our birth, 
The American girl — 

The best things on earth. 



8o Dinners and Luncheons 

Here's to the lying lips we meet, 
For truthful lips are bores. 

But lying lips are very sweet 
When lying close to yours! 

— Smart Set. 

Drink to Life and the passing show, 

And the eyes of the prettiest girl you know! 

Drink, Drink, Drink ! 

Drink to the girl of your heart; 

The wisest, the wittiest, the bravest^ the prettiest; 

May you never be far apart. 



Here's to the girl — 

With dash and whirl — 
Who rides about in an auto; 

Here's to the man 

Who'll bridle her 
To ride about as she "ought to." 

Here's to love, the only fire against which there is no* in- 
surance. 

Here's to the lasses we've loved, my lad, 
Here's to the lips we've pressed ; 

For of kisses and lasses 

Like liquor in glasses, 
The last is always the best. 

To Woman — When she is neither too young to be wise, nor 
too old to be careful. — Minnie Thomas Antrim. 

To Woman — A paradox who puzzles when she pleases and 
pleases when she puzzles. — Minnie Thomas Antrim. 



Dinners and Luncheons 8l 

To the Finest Girl I Know. 
Here's to her whose presence is ever and always near, 
Here's to her whose large brown eyes make life forever dear; 
Here's to her whose fair white skin is clear as the whitest 

snow, 
Here's to the sweetest of her sex — 
The finest girl I know! 

Here^s to the rim of my lady's glass, 

But tipped by her beautiful lip, 
And here's to the thrill that must certainly pass 
From the rim to the base of that fortunate glass 

Whenever she takes a sip. 

— Bayard Bacon. 

Here's health to you and wealth to you, 
Honors and gifts a thousand strong; 
Here's name to you and fame to you, 
Blessing and joy a whole life long. 
But, lest bright Fortune's star grow dim, 
And sometimes cease to move to you, 
I fill my bumper to the brim 
And pledge a lot of love to you! 

I fill this cup to one made up 

Of loveliness alone, 
A woman, of her gentler sex 

The seeming paragon. 
Her health ! and would on earth there stood 

Some more of such a frame, 
That life might be all poetry, 

And weariness a name. 

— Edward Co ate Pinckney. 

To My Lady Fair. 
To my lady fair 

I fill my cup ! 
To my lady fair 



82 Dinners and Luncheons 

With the cheeks so rare 

Where the dimples dare 
To tarry ; 
To her footsteps bright 
So like the flight 
Of a swallow light 

And airy — 
To my lady fair 

I fill my cup, 
To my lady fair 

I drink it up ! — Byard Bacon. 

Oh, lovely woman ! man's great bane 
And joy! You ne'er can pall! 

Source of all pleasure and all pain, 
And — bless you ! worth it all ! 

— Lews. 

Drink to fair woman, who, I think, 

Is most entitled to it; 
For if anything could ever drive me to drink, 

She certainly could do it. — B. Jabez Jenkins. 

Here's to woman, lovely woman — 

Gladdest in her gladness when she's glad; 

Saddest in her sadness when she's sad; 

But her gladness when she's glad, 

And her sadness when she's sad, 

Aren't in it with her badness when she's bad. 

I've toasted your eyes of blue, Marie, 
Fve toasted your hair of brown ; 

I've toasted your name with joyous glee 
To every man in town. 

I've done my best, so here's my plea. 

Fair lady of winsome frown, 
Could you decide to make for me 

My toast of golden brown? 






Dinners and Luncheons 83 

A Toast Over the Wedding Cake. 
A slice of love; a piece of joy; 

A chunk of adoration ; 
A sliver of unfailing health, 

And bridal concentration; 
An atom of the groom's content; 

The sweetness of the bride — 
And may the crumbs of comfort 

With both of them abide. 

When The Bride Becomes a Mother. 
She has planted a family tree that branches forever; let 
us drink to the dew of its roots and sip the April showers 
on its buds, and the golden sun that shall never cease to shine 
on its ripening fruit. 

To a Bride. 
Happy is the bride whom the sun shines on, 

And happy to-day are you; 
May all of the glad dreams you have dreamed 

In all of your life come true; 
May every good there is in life 

Step down from the years to you. 

Picture of a Stork. 
Here's to the stork, 
A most valuable bird, 
That inhabits the residence districts 
He doesn't sing tunes, 
Nor yield any plumes, 
But he helps out the vital statistics. 

— Portland Oregontan. 

At the Christening of a Girl Baby. 
Here's hoping that the little tot 

We christened at the water 
May live to take another name 
And name another daughter. 



84 Dinners and Luncheons 

The Babies. 
We haven't all had the good fortune to be ladies; we have 
not all been generals, or poets, or statesmen ; but when the 
toast works down to babies, we stand on common ground 
— for we've all been babies. — Samuel L. Clemens {Mark 
T<wain ) . 

When the old Bachelor Announces his Engagement: 
To the hour he found his courage ; 

To the smile that won his heart 
With a little look of sweetness 

And a dainty Cupid dart; 
To the bachelor's broken pledges; 

To the venial little sin 
That he cannot do without her — 

To the girl that took him in. 

Bring frost bring snow, 

Come winter ; bring us holly 

Bring joy at Christmas, 

Off with melancholy. 
Sing ho, sing hey 
For the holiday, 

■ 
Sing hey for good Christmas cheer 

But quaff one glass 

To the days that pass 
The last of the grand Old Year. 






Here's to the old year, drink boys, drink. 

Here's to the days that have fled. 
Old friends, old wine, old memories; 

Drink to the joys that are dead. 

Here's to the New Year stretching ahead, 
To the days that are blithesome and gay, 

May the joys of the old be the joys of the new, 
Its sorrows fade gently away. 



Dinners and Luncheons 85 

Here's good-bye to the old year — 

Here's regret. 
It has done the best it could — 

Let's not forget. 

Here's greeting to the New Year — 

Hold out a hand. 
Let's do the best that we know how — 

Make a good stand. 



n TABLE DECORATIONS. 

A basket of Parma violets or of valley lilies makes a 
delightful gift to carry home to the children of the 
family after it has beautified a woman's luncheon table. 
Pale daffodils are exquisite in a grass green frame, and 
so on. 

The bottom of each basket is fitted out with a tin 
plate rilling it exactly. Upon this is placed the damp 
moss which keeps the blossoms fresh throughout the 
meal. The flowers are arranged in upright position 
to look exactly as if growing out from the wicker-work 
receptacle. 

Centerpieces are either very low or very high. 
There seems to be no intermediate stage. A number 
of fashionable women whose table fashions are watched 
and copied still cling to the low bed of flowers which 
allows one to see the face of the vis-a-vis. 

A charming centerpiece which smart florists are sug- 
gesting is of white hyacinths and violets. The violets 



86 Dinners and Luncheons 

used are either of the pale double varieties or the 
large single flower — usually the latter. 

Violets and hyacinths are not mingled. Either one- 
half of the centerpiece is formed of each with its own 
foliage, or large clusters of each are massed together. 
There is no scattering of the single blossoms. 

As for the rose basket. It is entirely lovely. It is 
in use everywhere. It has one fault. It is sure to cut 
off one side of the table from the eyes of the other half. 
Women who must have what is newest use it for 
every kind of social entertaining — dinners, luncheons — 
wherever a table is used. More conservative host- 
esses have one for a wedding breakfast or other affair 
where there is no question of cutting off the view of 
any guest. 

These baskets are really among the daintiest bits of 
table furniture that the florists have yet devised. 
Usually the body of the basket is more or less shallow. 
The handle curving over it is very high and carried out 
in some artistic design of wickerwork. 

Long rose sprays are loveliest for filling these bas- 
kets. When well arranged the sprays appear to spring 
from the body of the basket, to climb wildly upward 
along the handle and to meet at the top in a mad 
tande of spicy blossoms. 

For decorations for a summer luncheon have a large 
gilt basket of white sweet peas in the center oi the 
table and tiny baskets of gilt wicker filled with white 
sweet peas at each plate. For ice cream have a 
boat of plain vanilla filled with luscious fresh straw- 
berries. Red raspberries, ripe peaches or any desired 



Dinners and Luncheons 87 

fruit can be used to fill the boat. A pretty conceit 
would be to have the lower part of the boat of pis- 
tachio to represent the sea and the upper part vanilla. 

A very effective centerpiece consists of a swinging 
basket supported by ribbons attached to the chandelier 
or the ceiling. The baskets, which are filled with cut 
flowers, are sometimes made of birch bark, and can be 
made without resorting to the aid of a professional. A 
square, shallow birch bark basket filled with pansies 
and suspended by means of yellow, violet or green 
ribbons is exquisite. 

The smartest down-tow r n flower shops are offering 
pussy willow boughs for table decoration. The soft, 
downy brown of the buds is often chosen for an entire 
luncheon decorative scheme, and nothing could be more 
delicious to the eye. The branches are cut long and 
are massed together in tall vases. Glass does nicely 
for this purpose, but porcelain — especially gray, blue 
or buff-colored porcelain — is ideal. 

A masterpiece for the table is a combination of 
white sweet peas, and the feathery white gypsophilum. 
All decorations are made low, springing from almost 
invisible foundations, every leaf and every bloom as- 
serting its individuality, and never were orchids more 
in demand. For those w T ho cannot afford to invest in 
them the long iris intermixed with grasses will serve. 

A unique and effective decoration for a luncheon 
table is made of long, narrow bouquets of white car- 
nations, tied with bows of yellow satin ribbon and 
arranged so that the ribbons all meet in the center 
of the table, while the points are directed toward the 



88 Dinners and Luncheons 

guests. The effect is of a great golden-hearted daisy. 

Violets, lovely as they are, do not make a pretty 
table decoration, being too dull in color. A few scat- 
tered in the finger bowls give an air of daintiness and 
bring with them a delicate fragrance. 

For the centerpiece for the Thanksgiving dinner 
table, this day of days, take a toy wagon, the kind 
which represents a farm wagon is best, and place it 
in the center of the table on a mat of wild grasses and 
berries and fill it to overflowing with luscious fruits, 
peaches, grapes, oranges, lemons, apples, whatever your 
larder affords. Entwine the wheels and tongue with 
smilax or grape leaves. If one is in a city and can 
afford the expense one can buy one of the larger toy 
turkey candy boxes and harness it to the cart with red 
ribbons, or another pretty way is to buy a different 
sort of animal, or bird candy box for each guest and 
fasten it with gay ribbons to the front of the toy 
wagon. A doll dressed as a farmer in blue overalls 
and big straw hat can be placed on the seat for driver 
and hold the ribbons. 

Another pretty centerpiece is a massive silver bowl, 
or a fancy Indian basket piled high with pretty fruits, 
nuts, nut burrs and the vine and berries of the bitter- 
sweet. If the dinner is to be late in the afternoon use 
Colonial candlesticks of brass or glass without shades. 
At each plate have a toy garden implement tied with 
a ribbon, the guests* names written on the ribbons. 

Washington's Birthday. 

The Colonial colors, blue and buff, can be used 



Dinners and Luncheons 89 

in the celebration of Washington's Birthday. The 
floors in drawing-room, hall and dining-room are given 
an extra polish, and only candlelight from wax tapers 
in sconces, candelabra and Colonial candlesticks of 
brass allowed. For the table decorations take a long, 
narrow pasteboard box, round the ends, cover it 
smoothly with buff satin, and make a boat. Fill this 
with violets and yellow jonquils, resting on a sea of 
ferns in the center of the table. A tiny reproduction 
of the original Stars and Stripes made of silk and 
fastened to a gilded standard place in the prow of the 
boat. In one corner of the table have a miniature 
cherry tree with artificial cherries from the milliner's 
carefully wired on. On the opposite corner, diagon- 
ally, have an imitation stump with hatchet sticking in 
the wood. In the corresponding corners have white 
candles with shades in form of yellow jonquils. 

St. Patrick's Day. 
Have simply a green plant in the center of the table, 
the pot being covered with a ruffle of green tissue paper 
tied with ribbon to match. Ferns or green leaves may 
be laid on the cloth around the little dishes holding 
nuts, olives and green candies. 

Fourth of July. 
Have a centerpiece of scarlet geraniums, poppies or 
nasturtiums, white geraniums, daisies, sweet peas and 
blue cornflowers. Or have a center basket of ferns, 
the handle tied with red, white and blue ribbons and 
tiny flags stuck in the ferns. Red and white and blue 
satin ribbons crossed on the tablecloth or a border of 



go Dinners and Luncheons 

flags crossed in two's make a pretty table decoration. 
Or for the centerpiece use a large toy cannon deco- 
rated with flags. By the side of the cannon stack air 
guns or any sort of toy guns in stacks of three. 
Hallowe'en. 

To decorate for Hallowe'en have in the center of 
the dining table a green jardiniere filled with red and 
yellow "button" chrysanthemums. Radiating from this 
have red and yellow ears of corn with green leaves 
between. At each corner of the table a jack-o-lantern 
and towards the center, baskets made of pumpkins full 
of red, green and yellow fruit. Cabbages and turnips 
hollowed out filled with chestnuts, and carrots used 
for candlesticks. All set upon mats of autumn leaves 
on a bare table. The effect is surprisingly artistic. 
For Christmas. 

The centerpiece may consist of three wreaths joined 
together and laid along the "backbone" of the table. 
The central wreath must be considerably larger than 
the other two. All three may be of holly, or prettier 
still, the larger wreath of holly, the other two of some 
decorative ferns. In the center of each wreath is 
arranged a low flower bowl containing rich red carna- 
tions or roses. 



Dinners and Luncheons 91 

CHAPTER V. 

HELPS OVER HARD PLACES— HINTS TO 
THE HOSTESS— DONTS FOR THE TA- 
BLE—THE EMERGENCY MISTRESS- 
PASSING THE LOVING CUP. 

One's dinner should be distinguished by that elu- 
sive element of informality, which tactfully intro- 
duced, is the making of a dinner, in quite the same pro- 
portion that its ineffectual simulation is the marring of 
the feast. 

The housewife has many emergencies to face. How 
to work out of difficulties never met with before taxes 
all of her ingenuity. She must not allow her perplex- 
ity to appear if she is dealing with children or servants, 
as that would cause them to lose faith in her infalli- 
ble wisdom. 

Does company come in without warning and the 
sense of hospitality constrain one to invite them to 
lunch or dinner, the careful Martha is ready for the 
emergency, and if too late to send to market and what 
is prepared must be supplemented with something else, 
she has plenty of canned goods in her storeroom and 
improvises some dainty dish without a suggestion of 
flurry. If not so thoughtful she graciously serves her 
guest with what she has, and never by word or look 
implies that the call is inopportune. 

The true "emergency mistress" is the quiet woman 



92 Dinners and Luncheons 

whose friends characterize her as having "plenty of 
common sense." She stores her mind with useful 
knowledge and her pantry shelves with abundance of 
supplies; her work basket always has thread of all 
colors and needles of every size therein. She has 
patches to match every garment worn by her children. 

The American eatertainer is prone to excess in the 
quantity which he offers to his guests. He does this 
out of a mistaken idea of hospitality, not from any fear 
of being called mean if he should give only a small 
repast. 

As a rule a dinner should consist of not more than 
five or six chief courses, i. e., soup, fish, entree, roast 
and vegetable, each one served separately, followed 
by an entremet of some sort, and fruit. 

The art of dinner-giving consists in properly combin- 
ing such dishes as are appropriate to follow each other 
on the same evening. I have seen a menu composed 
of turtle soup, salmon, venison and woodcocks, all 
excellent things in their way, but when brought to- 
gether only leaving a sense of excessive oiliness and 
richness. 

As an entree the roti should consist of game, and 
vice-versa. The salad served with poultry and game 
should be green salad with a simple dressing of oil 
and vinegar. No set rules can be laid down. 

It is true the caterer is an important element in the 
modern art of dinner-giving — he "saves all the trou- 
ble ;" but he is a stereotyped quantity. You know 
just what he will serve, just how he will serve it, and 
how enthusiastically grateful you would be if he would 



Dinners and Luncheons 93 

occasionally leave out croquettes, for instance, and 
surprise you with a less hackneyed delicacy. 

Make no attempt to vary your usual bill of fare. 
Your guest will infinitely prefer the newness of your 
dishes to an imitation of her own. If you live in the 
country, the home-made bacon and ham will be a real 
treat ; and a bass, fresh from the river, will be a revela- 
tion to one who has only eaten fish after it has been 
packed in ice. If you live in the city do not attempt 
to serve spring chicken to your country guest. It 
is impossible for a town chicken ever to become the 
tender, toothsome morsel she is used to at home. But 
the juicy steaks and roasts you are so tired of, are a 
treat she can seldom enjoy at her distance from mar- 
kets. 

Oriental sweetmeats have become so popular for 
afternoon tea tables in New York that many shops 
keep an extensive selection of these piquant novelties. 
Among the first favorites are candied Chinese oranges] 
dates, plums and other stone fruit crystallized by for- 
eign processes and stuffed with nut mixtures; Turkish 
pastes and East Indian goodies of unpronouncable 
names. 

When a plate is taken to be replenished always 
leave the knife and fork on it. 

Don't drink green chartreuse. Take the yellow. 
Also beware of the man who takes sweet soda with his 
brandy, and a man who wants claret from the ice box. 

Use your napkin with a finger behind it, drawing it 
around or across the mouth. Don't use it like a mop 
and your mouth as if it were the deck of a fishing 
sloop. 



94 Dinners and Luncheons 

When two or more forks are at your plate, use the 
smaller one for fish, or whatever the first course may 
be. The steel knife is for meat. When you have fin- 
ished, place the knife and fork on your plate crossing 
each other. Any good servant will know that you have 
finished. 

Don't fold your napkin unless you are dining at 
home and intend using it again. And if you are en- 
tertaining guests, do not do it then, as you thus indicate 
that you are determined to save the washing of at 
least one bit of linen. 

Tucking a napkin under the chin as if the user was 
now to be stuffed like a turkey, is in very bad taste. 
Lay your napkin across your lap. If it falls to the 
floor, quietly beckon the servant at a convenient time 
to restore it. 

It is no longer the thing to perfume the water in 
finger glasses, or to offer the bowls with slices of 
lemon in them. So many people have a positive ob- 
jection to perfume of any kind that its use in this way 
is discontinued. The pretty Japanese custom of drop- 
ping a flower or flower petals in the glass is, however, 
growing in favor. Usually the flower chosen cor- 
responds with those used in the centerpiece. A few 
rose petals floating in the clear water are most attrac- 
tive. Two or three scented violets are charming. At 
a little luncheon given in honor of an English woman 
visiting in this country, each bowl contained a water 
lily. 

Some time ago it was necessary to eat aspara- 



Dinners and Luncheons 



95 



gus with one's fingers, while to do so today would be to 
commit an unpardonable sin in the eyes of society. 



Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 



guests are of miscellaneous beliefs. 



Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 



t decorate with strong scented flowers 
t serve boiled fish without potatoes, 
t serve hot entrees on cold plates, 
t serve more than two vegetables with meat, 
t serve asparagus with meat, 
t force a guest to eat more than he wishes, 
t apologize for the cook, 
t make excuses for anything, 
t mention the cost of any dish, 
talk politics or religion at 



dinner, where 
but "men-ue." 



t pronounce menu may-nu, 

t pronounce the a long in "a la." 

t decorate the table with too many flowers. 

t place more than one plate at each place. 

t use individual butter dishes. 

t use the same knife for more than one course. 

t use the same fork for more than one course. 

t use a spoon for ices or ice-cream. 

t serve peas, beans, cauliflower, etc., with meat. 

t eat too much. 

t eat too fast. 

t eat too soon after exercise. 

t eat much for breakfast. 

t eat much when traveling. 

t eat between meals. 

t eat after 10 o'clock P. M. 

t eat fish with a knife. 

t eat ices with a spoon. 



96 



Dinners and Luncheons 



Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
Don 
food. 
Don 
Don 



t eat boiled eggs from a tumbler. 

t eat everything that you like. 

t eat anything that you don't like. 

t eat to please anyone but yourself. 

t drink when over-heated. 

t always drink when thirsty. 

t drink ice-water with hot food. 

t drink water from a city river. 

t drink tea with meat. 

t drink cafe-au-lait for dinner. 

t drink beer after wine. 

t drink wine after beer. 

t drink much at meals. 

t drink much between meals. 

t serve oysters after fish. 

t serve soup twice to any guest. 

t use a knife for green salads. 

t overload either the table or the guest 

t bite off a piece of bread. 

t scold the servant at the table. 



with 



Passing the Loving Cup. 
The host and hostess drink first from the loving cup, 
then the guest of honor drinks and then the others. 
The cup is passed around the table and each takes a 
sip and gives a sentiment or toast. If it is an affair 
given for a guest and not a wedding anniversary, the 
guest of honor drinks first and christens the cup, then 
the host and hostess and the guests drink. It is passed 
at the close of the dinner and may be wine, cider, 
claret cup or fruit punch. 








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